Synonyms for vainly
vain·ly

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1. vainlyadverb

   Synonyms:
   in vain

2. vainlyadverb

   In a vain manner; to no avail.

   Synonyms:
   in vain

Princeton's WordNetRate this synonym:0.0 / 0 votes

1. vainly, in vainadverb

   to no avail

   "he looked for her in vain"; "the city fathers tried vainly to find a solution"

   Synonyms:
   in vain

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How to use vainly in a sentence?

1. John McCain:

   Human rights progress in Vietnam should also be better served by restoring relations with that country, the Vietnamese have already developed complex relations with the rest of the free world. Instead of vainly trying to isolate Vietnam, the United States should test the proposition that greater exposure to Americans will render Vietnam more susceptible to the influence of our values.

2. John Brown, last words in a written note given to his jailer, Dec. 2, 1859:

   I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that, without very much bloodshed, it might be done.

3. Reinhold Niebuhr:

   The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.

4. William James:

   Much of what we call evil is due entirely to the way men take the phenomenon. It can so often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight; its string can so often depart and turn into a relish when, after vainly seeking to shun it, we agree to face about and bear it...

5. Christopher Morley:

   A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by.