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Vanity   /vˈænəti/  /vˈænɪti/   Listen
noun
Vanity  n.  (pl. vanities)  
1.
The quality or state of being vain; want of substance to satisfy desire; emptiness; unsubstantialness; unrealness; falsity. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." "Here I may well show the vanity of that which is reported in the story of Walsingham."
2.
An inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations; an excessive desire for notice or approval; pride; ostentation; conceit. "The exquisitely sensitive vanity of Garrick was galled."
3.
That which is vain; anything empty, visionary, unreal, or unsubstantial; fruitless desire or effort; trifling labor productive of no good; empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher." "Vanity possesseth many who are desirous to know the certainty of things to come." "(Sin) with vanity had filled the works of men." "Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, That all her vanities at once are dead; Succeeding vanities she still regards."
4.
One of the established characters in the old moralities and puppet shows. See Morality, n., 5. "You... take vanity the puppet's part."
5.
6.
A cabinet built around a bathroom sink, usually with a countertop and sometimes drawers.
Synonyms: Egotism; pride; emptiness; worthlessness; self-sufficiency. See Egotism, and Pride.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Vanity" Quotes from Famous Books



... the decision more trying. But in his own peculiarly calm and simple way, he wrote: "I really should not think myself justified in declining a situation of so great usefulness, and for which, without vanity, I think myself not ill adapted, either from a love for the society and friendship of England, or from a hope, which may never be realized, of being some time or other in a situation of more importance at home." At first, however, the fear for the child's health induced him to decline, ...
— Pioneers and Founders - or, Recent Workers in the Mission field • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... eloquence was marked by boldness, earnestness, almost fierceness. Like an ancient prophet, he was terrible in his denunciation of vices. He spared no one, and he feared no one. He resembled Chrysostom at Constantinople, when he denounced the vanity of Eudoxia and the venality of Eutropius. Lorenzo de' Medici, the absolute lord of Florence, sent for him, and expostulated and remonstrated with the unsparing preacher,—all to no effect. And when the usurper of his country's liberties was dying, the preacher was again sent for, this time ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI • John Lord

... they speak the truth, that she was not seduced;—and neither was it poverty; for her father was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a young lady of wealth and station;—but it was her vanity and her unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life; and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... means ends there for him. This good action must be performed,—and it is this which is, now palpably, now subtly, hard—entirely for the sake of goodness, without the slightest taint of self-seeking, of vanity, of secret satisfaction that we are not as other men are, not even as this Pharisee ...
— The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises • Richard Rolle of Hampole

... Perembe to tell anything of times previous to his own. Moendo-mondo, the world's leg (Pereira), told Dr. Lacerda that the natives called him "The Terror!"—a bit of vanity, for they have no such word or abstract term ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone


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