vainly
/ˈveɪnli
/adverb
1With an excessively high opinion of one’s appearance, abilities, or worth: I stared at myself vainly in the mirror they were vainly looking at old videos of themselves...
- He vainly affects a George Raft hairdo and would-be virile gestures that go soft before they are half over.
- In the 1950s, she was vainly hanging on to her former glamour-girl image.
- The ego is a vainly expressed personality.
2In a way that produces no result; to no avail: I was vainly trying to get to sleep she searched vainly for a pulse...
- He vainly tries to protect an absconding teenager from the police.
- She sought any work she could get, including temporary jobs in a clerical pool, while vainly applying for arts fellowships.
- After a chance encounter in a cafe ends up in a brief liaison, he tries vainly to track her down.
2.1With no likelihood of fulfilment: he vainly hoped to be appointed master he falls hopelessly and vainly in love with her...
- She plays the pretty hoyden that Conroy vainly longs for.
- I can only vainly aspire to ever possessing a fraction of the skills of Proust or Fitzgerald.
- People whose tenor of life is godless often imagine vainly that they will have time to take care of the end when it comes.