Looking for sentences with "in vain"? Here are some examples.
Sentence Examples
Several Cassandras try in vain to make their prophetic voices heard, but everyone is deaf.
The fluttering blue flags marking cut areas in the scorched trees signal that my days bumping down these washboarded roads have been in vain.
She resorted to all her tricks to get at the grapes, but wearied herself in vain, for she could not reach them.
Poor Aunt Barb didn't know the frequency, and so she jiggled in vain until someone heard her cries for help and came to the rescue.
There are ballads, blues and western swing, and Burch describes it as music you might hear in a dream and try in vain to remember in the morning.
He said a car had just managed to squeeze past the people carrier, and he had tried to do the same but in vain.
The hen's efforts to carry on the task of rearing her young in such circumstances were in vain and they all died.
We looked in vain expecting the area to miraculously improve but alas, no such luck.
And so that these young people will not have died in vain, as President Lincoln said, we have to recommit our country to a sense of community.
After marrying in 1999, we had tried in vain for three years to conceive even though there was nothing really wrong with us.
As she leafs through the yellow pages, my eyes try in vain to grab a word or two from the looped, fastidious handwriting.
But it was in vain, as Bury kicked deep from the restart and the final whistle blew.
But try telling that to the little old lady who has waited in vain a couple of years for a vital eye operation.
I have been trying in vain for the past few months to find a pair of skinny jeans that are not low-rise.
We took Lucy along because Dad loves to see her and tries in vain to get her to play fetch the ball.
Search the Scriptures with the teachableness of a little child and thy labour will not be in vain.
Since it struck in the early '80s, researchers have scratched for a vaccine or a cure but in vain.
In Boston, British soldiers search the houses of the rebel leaders in vain.
One has looked in vain every week in the Craven Herald for some sign that the district council was seized of the need for more parking provision.
I searched in vain for the street seller I bought a necklace from and promptly lost in the Blue Lagoon near Keflavik.
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Behind him, the capital ships were starting to shift, trying in vain to get out of their tight formation.
Dark forms capered amidst the flames, pausing only to hack at the battered forms of those that had tried in vain to defend the fortress.
Get your timing wrong, on either your exit from the market or your re-entry, and much of your bearishness would have been in vain.
I was more methodical this time, going through the presented menu, trying, in vain, to taste every dish.
The water in the ditch is too shallow for fish to live in but I bend down toward it, hoping in vain to find a school of tiny minnow.
He attempted another smile, but the effort was in vain, suddenly he felt cold all over, and mortally afraid.
Sometimes the dancers donned business suits and tried in vain to emulate the skaters' seamless glide and careless cool.
Was the world, with all its climates, made in vain for thy helpless, unoffending victim?
However, old salts may at first find themselves trying in vain to snick the safety on before holstering.
The couple suffered severe burns as they battled in vain to rescue their boys from the blaze.
She was one of hundreds of customers who were trying in vain to benefit from a giveaway deal.
The crowds waited in vain for an encore, not quite believing it was time to go home already.
The parish council has tried in vain to persuade another building society to open a branch in Pewsey.
Imagine you tell her to come straight home, then you wait in vain for the sound of her key in the door.
Previous efforts by the council to retain industrial use on other key sites in the city have been in vain.
Meanwhile a so-called rival diarist has been taking her name in vain, referring sneeringly to her brief career as an author of bodice rippers.
Nevertheless, it's more than likely that their valiant efforts will be in vain.
There are those of us who advised in vain that this sordid matter be quietly and wisely settled and not be bruited about in public.
They have tried in vain to find a respite place in a care home with suitable facilities.
They faded away in distress, in vain and into the forgotten pages of local history.
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And efforts to gather information from workers who had a lucky escape at the site were in vain as they simply clammed up.
The decade she spent looking for the paragon of perfection would not go in vain.
She tries in vain to reverse what is happening through the use of face powder and a powder puff, but with the knowledge that nothing can be done.
However this proved to be in vain when some quick thinking at a tap penalty saw Dodworth go nearly the full length of the field to tie the game.
He has inspired imitators, tolerated plagiarists and confounded the computer geeks who try in vain to turn his craft into software.
The fire brigade spent half an hour freeing the man from under the car while paramedics battled in vain to keep him alive.
We immediately need ten new people and we have advertised in vain for sheet metal workers, fabricators, electricians and pipe work fitters.
When the gems were discovered in 1930, the British colonial government tried in vain to slap strict controls on mining.
It is presumed that the legislature avoid superfluous or meaningless words, that it does not pointlessly repeat itself or speak in vain.
In auctioning off monetary gold the managers of irredeemable currency are trying, in vain, to buy time to save their tottering regime.
She struggled in vain against the darkness surrounding her, but the pain of a foreign element inside her prevented it.
She made her way, seemingly effortlessly, over walls, through gates and under hedges as the following horde tried in vain to make ground.
Democrats called in vain for gaveling the vote closed as Republican leaders lobbied their members to switch votes and support the bill.
She's encountered him several times previous to this, and despite her attempts to spread the magic fairy-dust, her attempts seemed to be in vain.
The chosen people were not to have any other gods, make graven images or take God's name in vain.
The policemen on duty tried in vain to cover the TV set, which was kept on elevated position, by throwing a piece of cloth on it.
After searching everywhere in vain they became discouraged and beat the drums for him.
We paused next to a clump of cactus, dismounted the camels, waited in vain for the small children.
I headed off for our dinner engagement where I waited in vain for my dear husband to arrive.
Attempts are made in vain to exorcise his spirit, but when the robe of a saint is placed on his shoulders, he achieves spiritual release.
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The fly then landed on National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis, who tried in vain to swat the insect.
Every day, relatives scuff their way along the dirt track to reach the razor wire barricades, where they plead in vain for information about the whereabouts of the missing.
In what other sport but cricket could you get 26,000 people splashing around in the puddles of a filthily overcast ground, waiting in vain for a game that might never resume?
In many engagements volunteers asked regular army commanders for support, transport and ammunition, but often in vain.
We dropped everything except the main and mizzen, tried in vain to get some speed, then gave up and sheeted them in tight and turned on the engine.
He footslogged it around the world-famous Dal Lake, visiting all the Mughal Gardens at Nishat, Shalimar and Harwan and the Botanical Gardens, but all in vain.
Winifred related that numerous calls to the education office were in vain.
When the tickets went on sale last March they sold out in two hours, leaving an number of fans who had camped out overnight angry their efforts were in vain.
I tried many tonics, tablets and exercise but all was in vain.
He reaches the walls of the city, and the Romans, to save it from destruction, send emissaries, old friends of Coriolanus, to propose terms, but in vain.
She tried in vain to break the restraints or shake off the helmet.
These icons haunted my fitful rest, tantalizing and tormenting as I waited in vain for the Sirenes.
Already signs are that there might be a bumper harvest this season but all this will be in vain if measures are not taken to prevent crops from going to waste.
I searched in vain for a patch of sundews, the little carnivorous plants that live in just this kind of environment, so I could show off my meagre botanical knowledge.
His efforts are in vain, however, as he only succeeds in muddling the central story while completely disengaging us from the characters on the screen.
The opera charts the tragic tale of butterfly waiting in vain for her husband to return to her.
Both were squinting out into the uneven lighting, trying in vain to make out the shifting shape of the approaching watercraft as it pulled up to one of the side floats.
The Drainage Department, Gurdaspur, has sent several notices to the Municipal Council, Batala, not to throw sewage of the city area into the nullah but in vain.
The victim insists on some challan for being stopped, in vain.
That his effort is in vain can be inferred from the strands of gold thread that unravel from the bride's veil, sewn across the paper in large deliberate stitches.
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It must be hard for her to hurt her son, but the pain I have to suffer from my disease is pretty bad just now so please, God, excuse me for the odd word in vain.
He was dead, and all my pleading with him not to leave me was in vain.
They searched the valley in vain, but they kept coming across luminous pools of water, throwing back at them mirror images of trees, mountains and clouds.
One has waited in vain for a comparable exhibition there, only to be disappointed by a scattering of shallow displays, rich in contrivance and sparse in substance.
For all the effort Roddick has devoted to pioneering a path for women's lib, she appears far too willing to accept that it has been in vain or that it is being misused.
Ivory screamed as she wriggled and twisted, trying in vain to get away.
Asserting our right to free speech is the only to ensure that 12 people did not die in vain.
She had to spend two days on the phone with insurance and repair companies, trying in vain to get the courtesy car to which she is supposed to be entitled.
Indeed, one searches the faces of the crowd in vain for a person of color.
My constituents needed to know that the loss of life had not been in vain.
In consequence of these destructive acts, Enkidu dies, and Gilgamesh is left to wander half-crazed, searching in vain to resurrect his beloved friend.
I searched in vain for a subject that wasn't deadly boring, dry as dust, and leached of every detail of the kind that makes things interesting in real life.
Even if we eventually get lost in our own inarticulateness, our attempts to speak of God truly are not in vain, nor are they of purely academic interest.
Staff at the prison had tried in vain to resuscitate him in his cell.
Our highest calling is to our God, the One God, before whom we have no other gods, whose name we do not take in vain, and whose sabbath day we keep sacred.
Even our efforts at fighting corruption will be in vain if we are not holistic in our approach by ingraining inclusiveness and merit in government action.
My hands felt slippery, and I tried in vain to calm my nerves.
He was at pains to stress that his whole-hearted commitment to drawing in larger crowds with gate reductions and the acquisition of quality players seems to be in vain.
She scrabbled in vain for purchase on the stone floor, which was smooth from the years of pedestrian traffic pounding the irregularities into powder.
The older girl slipped in and began to remove her jacket, taking a pause to shake her head free of snowflakes, though only in vain as they clung to her flaming hair.
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But around 300 BC, still worried about taking God's name in vain, they began even substituting these tetragrams with the word, Adhonai, which simply means Lord.
They also started to besiege the new city of Tripoli, but in vain, and then returned to Cyprus.
Paramedics tried in vain to revive Cagney O'Brien after he slipped while playing on the rope tied to a tree near his home.
In the remake of the 1955 Ealing comedy, Hanks plays the leader of a criminal gang which tries in vain to bump off its elderly landlady.
A neighbor tried in vain to stanch the bleeding with a towel.
King Burgred of Mercia fought in vain against the Ivar the Boneless and his Danish invaders for three years until 874, when he fled to Europe.
It was Chauncey DeGrandis, lord of the manor, trying in vain to assert his lord-dom.
An attempt was made to obtain a revocation of the edict of expulsion as early as 1310, but in vain.
According to the contemporary chronicler Roger of Howden, Longchamp dug a moat around the castle and tried in vain to fill it from the Thames.
Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
For the next seven years, between 1880 and 1887, Stevenson searched in vain for a place of residence suitable to his state of health.
There is a famous photo of him scoring yet another header and the goalkeeper is clinging on to him while two defenders try in vain to stop him.
In 1378, the city was besieged by Charles V as the rest of the Norman possessions of the King of Navarre, but in vain.
In 893, aided by Archbishop Fulk of Reims, Charles the Simple attempted to reclaim the throne, but in vain.
His retreat was in vain, however, as he was overtaken by the Germanic cavalry and killed shortly thereafter, according to Velleius Paterculus.
This was disputed in vain, and in 1777 Spain confirmed Portuguese sovereignty.
When Tekuder's brother Arghun challenged him for the throne, Tekuder sought assistance in vain from the Mamluks, but was executed.
Maurice pressed Frederick in vain to at least defend the Palatinate against the Spanish troops under Spinola and Tilly.
It was in vain to be a Rhadamanthus with the bells, and if an unfortunate bell rang without leave, to have it down inexorably and silence it.
What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account!
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Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.
Fonda tried in vain to convince Jarrow and Archer to ditch the project.
Our valiant campaigner has also tried, so far in vain, to force the Skipton, Portman and Chelsea building societies to demutualise.
Brave Angel was found under the Incienso Bridge, in Guatemala, and taken to hospital where doctors fought in vain for 15 days to save his life.
Abu Saleh, an Emirati, said he stayed up late one night to catch the troublemakers, but in vain.
Wick Academy last night said sorry to Strathspey Thistle after the bottom-of-the-table side endured a wintry 270-mile round trip in vain.
I am sure I wished to do so, and yet Tessie pleaded with me in vain.
After waiting here in vain for the rest of the fleet, they sailed south to another bay, where they stayed for five months, building a fort and loading logwood.
He was a lonely, latchkey kid who tried, in vain, to adopt a puppy.
Harley employed her influence without scruple, and not in vain.
Governor Spitzer's upstate revitalization plan is a sign that Senate Democrats are not preaching in vain when it comes to the challenges of upstate economic development.
Passers-by tried in vain to save former Plymouth Argyle youth player Alex Peguero-Sos with heart massage and CPR following the 2am clash in Kingsbridge, Devon.
In another tragic case, Hugo, another of the Alaskan Malamute pups who arrived at the centre alongside Malakai, saw vets struggle in vain to save his life.
His fat body shook like a balatron, as if his soul, biting for anger at a mouth inadequately circumferential, desired in vain to fret a passage through it.
In the 1970s, a Belgian consul in Oldenburg made the mayor of Bruges sign a declaration of friendship which he tried to present, in vain, as a jumelage.
I am much consoled by the reflection that the religion of Christ has been attacked in vain by all the wits and philosophers, and its triumph has been complete.
The ball was launched goalward and Wolfgang Weber scored, with England appealing in vain for handball as the ball came through the crowded penalty area.
When Roberts and his men were finally found an attempt was made to blow the ship up rather than face capture, however it proved in vain due to an insufficient gunpowder.
Carl, who has been breeding Texels for 14 years, had slimmed down his Cosyn Texel flock to 30 ewes and is now waiting in vain for a batch from Lanarkshire.
In the children's play area outside, the old Pelton wheel stands there idly, pensioned off but still waiting in vain for the nod to whir back into action.
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That year, Labour MP Clare Short attempted in vain to persuade Parliament to outlaw the pictures on Page Three and gained opprobrium from the newspaper for her stand.
He tried in vain to persuade Rosebery to become Liberal leader again.
Examples from Classical Literature
Weapons of the most ethereal temper spend their keenness in vain against the 'anarch old' whose power lies in utter insensibility.
My two years at lectures had not been passed in vain, and surgery had been my hobby.
We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors.
But owing to the strength of social democracy in this country, all Reinsdorf's efforts at agitation were in vain.
If it was bad enough to have grinned through a horse-collar it was very bad indeed to have grinned in vain.
It was in vain that M. de Rnal pressed Sorel to clinch the matter then and there.
Scott covered the ground fast, but he searched in vain for sign of antelope.
Northerly and north-westerly winds prevailed, and we whistled in vain for a southerly buster to clear the coast of ice.
Carteret begged in vain for a rope yarn, a forge, and various things which his experience told him would be indispensable.
It was in vain Madame the directress exclaimed and expostulated at these improprieties.
With clasped hands, and in ringing tones, Hus begged in vain for a hearing.
These crowds you complain of are evidence that I have not discharged the function of paranymph in vain.
All Charles' efforts on behalf of the pragmatic sanction proved to have been labour spent in vain.
There is a spontaneousness about them we search for in vain in his work in oil and pastel.
Still the body of Hector lay on the ground, and the men of Ilion sought in vain to redeem it from Achilles.
He has not lived in vain, for he is a tree planter and believes in arboriculture.
It is in vain that I am impenitently romantic, I would not take you there for anything in the world.
If the remontant types are interspersed throughout your garden you need never, between May and October, look for a rose in vain.
The incantation that had never yet failed of its hated purpose was pronounced in vain.
He rode after us with his Lowlanders, protesting, threatening, cajoling in vain.
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I attempted to pacify her by an indefinite reply to her inquiries, but in vain.
Not in vain had he mastered the encyclopedia from Safety-lamps to stranglers.
Sartines rose, trying in vain to dissimulate the agitation to which he was a prey.
Underneath these coherent and indurate ledges the most valuble ores exist, but coal and fossils are searched for in vain.
He had never approached Plank in vain, and he did not do so now, for Plank had a pocket cheque-book and a stylograph.
Having exhausted his powers of suasion in vain, he left her to think over it, and sallied forth crestfallen.
Not in vain you live, for every passing eye is cheered and refined by the vision.
The innkeeper, more and more out of countenance, searched his memory in vain.
The men were, of course, inspirited anew by this disclosure, but all was in vain.
The Beau tried to preserve his dignity, and throw over his duper, but in vain.
How much wine and blood he had poured to intoxicate himself, but all in vain.
When Oswy found that all entreaties were in vain, he mustered his forces together, which were far inferior to penda's in number.
His friends and relatives tried in vain to stop him making himself ridiculous and being dragged down from the bema.
Tepelenti waited in vain in the tower of Janina for the arrival of the army of deliverance.
Chamberlain in vain urged defense and political policies designed to centralize power in London.
Meanwhile the Jovian fleet will have landed and your efforts will be in vain to dislodge them.
Her abjuration, which by no just title could be called an abjuration, had been in vain.
Mrs. Robertson, weeping herself, sought to comfort her, but it seemed in vain.
It was in vain that I endeavoured to give my explanation of the word dealings.
Even so the Japanese wrestler, who has got a certainty, is temperance itself towards his victim, who writhes in vain.
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And not so much as a sketch-book scrawl of a weary woman seeking rest on knobbly rustic seats in vain.
I have been wracking my brains in vain to remember what exactly DID happen yesterday.
I have searched the records of their enrolment in vain for their charter and deeds.
He replaced the pieces on the chessboard, and looked for the explanation of failure, but in vain.
Deaf is the heart to which the Lares call from the desolate floors in vain.
One may search in vain for the trace of any object in the nature of a chopstick in Central or South America.
I sought for comfort in a Godless and Christless philosophy, but sought in vain.
Also the journals of the Commune and the delegates of the syndical Chambers in vain summoned the electors to the ballot-box.
O the words of kindness, all to be expressed in vain, that flowed from her lips!
But day followed day, and still they waited in vain for any sign of yielding.
Darius brought to bear on Tarentum all the influence he could wield, but in vain.
The labors of woolman and his few but earnest associates had not been in vain.
She struck him, kicked and twisted with all her splendid, lithe strength, but it was in vain.
They attempted to extenuate their crimes by the hardships they had suffered, but in vain.
She had searched in vain for a cisatlantic equivalent, but could not get hold of one.
All attempts at evasion, at adjourning, at concealing and compromising are in vain.
He looked everywhere in vain, however, for a man with a club foot and the girl in white and diamonds.
She could see the smoke of fires against which the summer rain had warred in vain.
On reaching his chamber he laid his hand on every possible ledge and corner for the tinderbox, but for a long time in vain.
You may count your blessings score on score, and you may heap your golden grain, but remember when her grave is made, your coming will be in vain.
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Mr. Parsons in vain took down the wainscotting, to see whether some mischievous neighbour produced the sounds.
The irate owner searched in vain for his slave and even asked the fisherwoman if she had seen a weeping maiden.
That Church was at this time in a state of great disorder, which Calvin had in vain tried to tranquillize, at Neuchatel.
Maryann, the nurse, had long tried that in vain, and had almost broken her heart about it.
Vicksburg would have been won in vain and the Union would be broken in the West.
Not having been reined up by Mather, it is in vain for the Reviewer to attempt it.
The language of contumely was exhausted in vain efforts to describe his baseness.
Janet tried in vain to take his attention, and ended by flouncing out of the old parlour, hot with indignant wrath.
He was guardian of the Ridge, and cricket, quoits, and races appealed to him in vain.
They wished in vain for the breakfast that the majority had forgone when the Pomfret Castle sighted land.
For two hours Erasmus Smith, the Boer predicant, argued in vain in behalf of his flock.
One searches in vain for a full-faced, well-developed, hearty looking man, among the natives in the streets of this capital.
After rambling to a considerable distance, they began to feel hungry, but in vain they searched for a Venda.
She tried to recall poindexter's words, even her own enthusiasm, but in vain.
Slowly the vessels coasted along the uninviting shore, looking in vain for any inlet or any river's mouth.
Having heard his monody to the end, and waited in vain for a second stave, I flew to his assistance.
It was in vain to prohibit by edict after edict the monopolization of land by the wealthy classes.
They search narrowly, but in vain, and at last hurry away as the girdler light-ship still continues to fire heavy guns.
It seemed to her that for months she had been covetously listening for it in vain.
Here he was assailed by MRA the Tempter who offered him universal empire but in vain.
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But we looked in vain for the thin, bowed figure of his grief-stricken sister.
The voice came from a mudded hollow, where a loaded cart stuck fast, an old horse and an old man striving with it in vain.
He was partnered with Daffy, and for a long time he sought speech with Marjorie in vain.
But in vain the mufti, and the Patriarch, and the Pope flout at your past traditions.
I raved and stormed through the seraglio like one possessed, but it was all in vain.
For had he crashed, or smashed that fragile tube, all would have been in vain.
And this is another spell against which the shedder of blood for ever strives in vain.
How he tried all kinds of artifices, as he leaned on his crutch, and all in vain!
It was in vain for the politic father to remonstrate with the headstrong son.
He gave a signal to the backstop, and then sent in an outcurve, which the batter swung at in vain.
And the gentle Utopian Emperor had tried in vain to be killed on the battle-field.
There were three eggs in the inaccessible cliff-nest, and he brought me one, which I tried in vain to hatch under a sitting duck.
If he had not said please he should have ho'd and hullo'd in vain, but at that word I turned.
It was in vain to refuse, and this new labour imposed on the Cardinal another sitting of eight hours.
For three days men crazed with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts to solve its mystery.
It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull torch, endeavoured to pry into the depth of the recess.
They toiled and moiled till they were quite exhausted, but all in vain.
With the consequences of my neglect I now reproached myself in vain.
Mordecai struggled in vain against the blows of Towerculla's followers.
The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain.
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The horses tried every means to unseat their rider, but in vain.
Hillbrook, by the way, is not the only place in Christendom where a vestigial polytheism forbids the taking in vain of the Evil One's name.
One looked in vain for the fire-eating beau sabreur of a Murat.
Unwatchful trust is a delusion, and untrustful watching is in vain.
He made effort after effort to get back to Muscovy, but in vain.
This hand, that others prized, and sued for in vain, is unvalued now.
She tapped it softly as she had seen nang Hsen Gaw do, but all in vain.
That winter passed with Mary in vain longing and vainer hopes.
Berenice, who was fulfilling a Nazarite vow, interposed in vain.
It is in vain I represent that I have acted for them, and not against, according to your commands.
You look in vain for any outward signs of profligacy or debauchery.
I was as amiable as possible on the occasion, but all in vain.
Madame Hester absolutely refuseth to speak, and the magistrates have laid their heads together in vain.
Pray call again as soon as possible, and explain the reason of my having expected this in vain.
I smiled in vain hope I could charm him to speed up and handed him my bankbook.
It was in vain that I brought the batteries of common-sense to bear upon her whim.
One attempts in vain even to picture the avatar's attainment.
When Balfour was in power, we felt that our labour was not in vain.
We anchored off Basseterre and waited in vain for the doctor.
It is named Watcher of the Fords,' she answered, 'and it has not watched in vain.
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He and his men had had days of weary sailing and had sought in vain for shallow water in which they might come to an anchorage.
Those who stood about him besought him in vain to put on his cuirass.
I have assailed thy resolution in vain, and mine own is fixed as the adamantine decrees of fate.
The French explorer, binger, in 1887 sought in vain for them.
You may hunt for it in vain among the biographical dictionaries.
Mr. Kirkup tries in vain to convert him to the spiritual doctrine.
I looked in vain for the hands and feet of my ideal, large and bony.
When every other wile had been tried in vain, he got Archie to propose a game with forfeits.
But, bound as he was, we can understand why they looked in vain.
I shrieked at his words, hoping the cadi would hear me, but in vain.
The doctor kept a sharp lookout for other Cairns, but in vain.
The doctor looked carefully round for other Cairns, but in vain.
Towards evening he grew fearful of ambushes and hunted vigorously for an hour or so, but in vain.
For what purpose these angular ornaments were intended I in vain endeavoured to discover.
Not in vain from the charnel have come to me the records I produce.
Cleon in vain pleads, that he stole it for the good of his country.
Rarefaction and condensation by instruments were also tried, but in vain.
He came in with cheery look and manly spirit, and tried to reanimate the expiring heart of the poor money digger, but it was all in vain.
And while I was convulsing myself in vain, the train started!
We should in vain, therefore, attempt to demonstrate its falsehood.
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It may be that my remedies, so long administered in vain, begin now to take due effect.
I sought, but sought in vain, to remember any of the elegant phrases so laboriously prepared.
The depletion and anodynes of the physician were administered in vain.
It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences, tea perhaps included, resulted from this objectionable practice.
About her she peered in vain for something to protect her disarray.
It was in vain to try to do so scornfully, or with his usual insolence.
The trader searched the boat from stem to stern, among boxes, bales and barrels, around the machinery, by the chimneys, in vain.
It is in vain to oppose constitutional barriers to the impulse of self-preservation.
I struggled like an eel caught in a net, but it was all in vain.
She looked in vain for the settlement, for the rugged ditches, the scattered cabins, and the unsightly heaps of gravel.
But now, should you go thither to seek him, you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco Surveyor.
But now I look around for my stay, my monitor, my encourager, in vain.
The princes and chieftains of Erin in vain sought her hand in marriage.
All in vain, however, did he point out the excellences of his work.
He exerted his will and called himself foolish, but in vain.
His father-in-law tried to retain him at the siege, but in vain.
Vernon that her sisterly cautions have been bestowed in vain, and to persuade Reginald that she has scandalously belied me.
When he was told that a local magnate had said no one would take him for a City man, he felt that he had not lived in vain.
