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a revel; a frolic; a delusive show. Bacon. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask. Milton.

A vain, unprofitable discourse or inquiry. [R.]

Mild of temper; not easily provoked or orritated; patient under injuries; not vain, or haughty, or resentful; forbearing; submissive. Not the man Moses was very meek. Num. xii. 3.

e show of earnestness; a counterfeit appearance. It is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Shak. Grace at meals is now generally so performed as to look more like a mockery upon devotion than any solemn application of the mind to God. Law. And bear about the mockery of woe. Pope.…

A Moor. [Obs.] In vain the Turks and Morians armed be. Fairfax.

The practices of a mountebank; quackery; boastful and vain pretenses.

To chew or bite gently, as one without teeth. Gums unarmed, to mumble meat in vain. Dryden.

apply opprobrious epithets to; to call by reproachful appellations. -- To take a name in vain, to use a name lightly or profanely; to use a name in making flippant or dishonest oaths. Ex. xx. 7.

Affectation of, or fondness for, novelty; vain or affected fashion or form.

Trifling; vain; futile; insignificant.

unnecessary show; pretentious parade; -- usually in a detractive sense. "Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm." Milton. He knew that good and bountiful minds were sometimes inclined to ostentation. Atterbury.

nference with an enemy, as with regard to a truce. We yield on parley, but are stormed in vain. Dryden. To beat a parley (Mil.), to beat a drum, or sound a trumpet, as a signal for holding a conference with the enemy.

Of or pertaining to a parson; clerical. Vainglory glowed in his parsonic heart. Colman. -- Par*son"ic*al*ly, adv.

One who puts on an air of learning; one who makes a vain display of learning; a pretender to superior knowledge. Addison. A scholar, yet surely no pedant, was he. Goldsmith.

The act, character, or manners of a pedant; vain ostentation of learning. "This pedantry of quotation." Cowley. 'T is a practice that savors much of pedantry. Sir T. Browne.

The herb vervain (Verbena officinalis).

Smart; trim; spruce; jaunty; vain. "Perk as a peacock." Spenser.

tubborn; intractable; hence, wayward; vexing; contrary. To so perverse a sex all grace is vain. Dryden.

r phenomena are explained. [Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. Chaucer. We shall in vain interpret their words by the notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our school. Locke.

Ostentatious; pretentious; boastful; vainlorious; as, pompous manners; a pompous style. "Pompous in high presumption." Chaucer. he pompous vanity of the old schoolmistress. Thackeray. -- Pom"ous*ly, adv. -- Pomp"ous*ness, n.