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In a vain manner; in vain.

fall with force; to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do. Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. Dryden. They [winds] beat at the crazy casement. Longfellow. The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wisbed in himself to die. Jonah iv. 8. Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers. B…

Merely imaginary; fanciful; fantastic; wildly or vainly conceived; having, or capable of having, no existence except in thought; as, chimerical projects.

Wildy; vainly; fancifully.

cially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel. Time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died. South.

New made; hence, gaudy; showy; vainly decorated. [Obs., except with the prefix new.] See Newfangled. "Our fangled world." Shak.

In a idle manner; ineffectually; vainly; lazily; carelessly; (Obs.) foolishly.

Incapable of being wounded, or of receiving injury. Neither vainly hope To be invulnerable in those bright arms. Milton.

Bragging; vainly boasting.

in the heels now, and they all run away. Beau. &Fl. Nor light and idle toys my lines may vainly swell. Drayton.

Swelling in style or language; vainly ostentatious; bombastic; pompous; as, a turgid style of speaking. -- Tur"gid*ly, adv. -- Tur"gid*ness, n.

Given to vaunting or boasting; vainly ostentatious; boastful; vainglorious.

oy prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury. The younger son gathered all together, and . . . wasted his substance with riotous living. Luke xv. 13. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And…

round with velocity; to revolve or rotate with great speed; to gyrate. "The whirling year vainly my dizzy eyes pursue." J. H. Newman. The wooden engine flies and whirls about. Dryden.