Link Centre Dictionary

vainly

US/ˈveɪnli/ uncommon

adverb

1.

to no avail

  • “he looked for her in vain”
  • “the city fathers tried vainly to find a solution”
Synonyms

Origin

Inherited from Middle English vaynly, veynly, vaynely, veynely, equivalent to vain + -ly.

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.