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Use vanity in a sentence

Definition of vanity:

  • (noun) feelings of excessive pride
  • (noun) the quality of being valueless or futile;
  • (noun) the trait of being unduly vain and conceited
  • (noun) low table with mirror or mirrors where one sits while dressing or applying makeup

Sentence Examples:

Epitaphs whose style has been borrowed from them, the vanity of this world holds its place above the grave.

As for that idea of theirs of an only son, and their vanity in wanting to make a gentleman of him, ah!

To play at Literature is altogether inexcusable: the motive is vanity, the object notoriety, the end contempt.

I knew then that I was beautiful, and rejoiced in the knowledge; but no tinge of vanity mingled with the joy.

And besides that, mere carnal vanities are trivial things; a gray eye or so is not in the least to the purpose.

His light moments of envy, anger, and vanity passed into the crucible to come forth unchanged.

Mitchell played upon his vanity at first, only to find the man wholly lacking in conceit.

His vanity is inordinate; and his unmistakable courage is impaired, to Northern apprehension, by swaggering bravado.

The fashions, the vanities and the pleasures of life, held no despotic sway in their breasts.

"Ah, would that I could hope so much," said Marie gloomily; "but I have wounded his vanity, and he never forgives."

It was simply that my vanity did not permit me to revoke clearly and decidedly what I had written previously.

Pardon an old man's harmless vanity, but it is my weakness to make my memory do its work unaided, when possible.

Just enough of music and dancing to add grace and brightness to life, but never to foster vanity and extravagance.

I thought such excessive vanity very unbecoming in a man of his years, but I could not help looking amused.

I told him, that I was greatly obliged to him for his good opinion of me: that it was so much every man's duty to be an honest man, that it could not be interpreted as vanity to say, that I had no doubt to be found so.

And as soon as the tone of her voice had died out, and the surprise faded from his mind, he found himself believing that she had spoken the truth, for he had but little vanity, and soon her refusal seemed a natural thing to him.

A life thus eventful ended with the conviction that all was vanity!

Of the two vanities, therefore, that of the slug seems most substantial.

Even as a Curate, a certain harmless vanity was ever my besetting weakness.

This is an arithmetical fact, and is not prompted by national vanity on my part at all.

If a woman has any vanity she knows her own good points much better than any man who attempts to explain them to her; and if she has no vanity, no amount of explanation of her merits will make her see them in a proper light.

She piqued my vanity in some way, and made me feel curious and restless.

His natural vanity was undoubtedly fostered by the adulation which he received from those in authority.

A shiver of passionate vanity, wrath, and longing passed through her as her tall frame stiffened.

I'm beginning to believe that it's a sort of monstrous vanity that incites you to such questions.

A wife will probably admire the husband for what he is really worth; and the vanity of a really clever man probably only amounts to putting a little too large a price on his merits, not to a mistake as to what those merits are.

I suppose this piqued the vanity of the girls, and they set themselves to catch me.

All his vanity of the morning was dispelled by the tragedy taking place next door.

Their vanity was in such good order that they seemed to be quite free from it, and gave themselves no airs; while the praises attending such behavior, secured and brought round by their aunt, served to strengthen them in believing they had no faults.

He had aspired to the absolute beauty and goodness, and the end was vanity and vexation.

I give these appreciative words not, I think, from vanity, for they are not for me but for my material, to show the effect our old literature has on those who come fresh to it, and that they do not complain of its "want of imagination."

And thus we live the vanity of plenitude or the plenitude of vanity.

The vanity of man, and his insatiable longing after existence, have led him also to dream of a life after death.

"And may I ask, without indiscretion, what the one dream may be that you have refused to relegate among the vanities?"

The rejection was not prompted by her fortitude but her vanity.

On assuming the responsibility of this post, I found myself in a position which gratified my vanity.

This vanity made him also wear his derby indoors and out, because of his entirely bald head.

The illusion, as he imagined, had been lived down, and had expired of its own vanity.

You soothe his ruffled vanity, and give him a better appetite for lunch.

Such a cold and chilling speech would be a very good medicine for uneasy vanity, but the best medicine of all is the contemplation of the history of men who have flourished and loomed large before their fellows, and who now have sunk into the night.

This is a very romantic story, and very pleasing to our national vanity to think that one of the daughters of America may some day be closely related to the Queen of England, but it is a very remote contingency, and not very likely to occur.

Then, as for taking care of oneself, that is all very well for women with families and friends; as for us, from the moment we can no longer serve the vanity or the pleasure of our lovers, they leave us, and long nights follow long days.

Above all things, retain the politeness and attention of a lover; and avoid that careless manner which wounds the vanity of human nature, a passion given us, as were all passions, for the wisest ends, and which never quits us but with life.

It is vanity, too, to covet honors, and to lift up ourselves on high.

She bit her lip savagely in her jealous pain and wounded vanity.

Even the open hand with which he dispenses his bounty will not atone for the violence he offers to national vanity.

Often the very eccentricities of character to which we cling so tenaciously are but forms of vanity.

Squander not your wealth among yourselves in vanity, except it be a trade by mutual consent, and kill not one another.

Nor is this predilection for Petrarch the result of female vanity and the mere love of homage.

And therefore I suspect that all the luxury you have bragged of was nothing but vanity.

There you have it, if gratified vanity will help you on the way.

And when the jaded soul revolts in supreme defiance, declaring its right to its own life, its own duties, its own friendships, and its own loves, there is much expressed disgust, much misfortune predicted, and, saddest of all, much wounded vanity.

The omnipotence of opinion had convinced him of the vanity of all the plans submitted to him for crushing it.

For one, it is cursing and swearing; for another vanity and conceit.

The world is a miserable, hollow, deceitful shell of vanity and hypocrisy.

I often wonder that human vanity has not done away with alcoholism.

This is not vanity: it is merely a proper sense of personal worthiness.

Religion gave place to recklessness, valor disappeared in vanity, and a splendid idleness replaced a splendid industry.

And this sinful, detestable vanity of ours must cost the lives of so many good, brave, happy, and useful persons.

The great disadvantage it is to us maids, is that the widows by their forward carriages do snap up the young men, and have the vanity to think their merit beyond ours which is a just imposition on us who ought to have the preference.

He says that it is especially excited by affectation, hypocrisy, and vanity.

A matron of my acquaintance, complaining of her daughter's vanity, was observing that she had all of a sudden held up her head higher than ordinary, and taken an air that showed a secret satisfaction in herself, mixed with a scorn of others.

All that sort of stuff plays on a man's vanity when it comes from a pretty girl, and it didn't take me long to decide that I was in love with her and that, aside from humane reasons, I ought to take her with me.

It had the air of piqued vanity; but she knew that this was not the interpretation.

On jerky feet the girl advanced to Nita's now deserted vanity dresser.

That was what his expression suggested to me; but as I know for a fact that he has not at all a nice, kind character, I suppose in reality what he felt was only a stupid prick of vanity at having inadvertently given his age away.

By this marriage all her vanities were as much gratified as her passions.

They have learned from the sea also its vanity: is not the sea the peacock of peacocks?

That zeal, favored as it was by fortune, adapted to the times that came upon him, and urged forward by great personal vanity, laid the foundations of his fame far more, as I conceive, than any strength of mind or talents of his own.

I entreat you to pardon me; this forgetfulness of the glorious vanities of the world is no crime.

The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.

Her vanity had suffered recent shock, and an unreasoning longing possessed her to be cared for, to be supremely needed.

A woman's vanity is the rudder that shapes her course through life.

These little creatures, which are no larger than pin's heads, are among the greatest plagues in some parts of the jungle; and what increases the annoyance is the knowledge of the fact that they dance almost into your eyes out of sheer vanity.

The great disadvantage it is to us maids, is, that the widows, by their forward carriages, do snap up the young men; and have the vanity to think their merits beyond ours, which is a great imposition upon us who ought to have the preference.

Curiosity or vanity shuts the door of the heart to the Holy Ghost, and stifles in it all affections of piety.

He had preached a sermon against the extravagance and vanity of women in dress and pomp.

It was baffled desire and injured vanity that led me to do what I did before, and I was justly punished.

That I have friends who divert me, and that I really only want her to be a secretary and companion, and that any interest I may show in her is merely for my own vanity, because she is, to the world, my wife!

My vanity did not express itself in strutting or wagging the head.

The value affixed to the exquisite portrait soon reconciled the vanity of the original through her interest.

Great evils arise from vanity; for when we try to place ourselves in a position for which we are not fit, we are liable to be laughed at, and, when we would return to our former state, we find we have lost the esteem of our former friends.

The innocence of the child would have made her outspoken; but would his vanity have been fostered by the confession?

Swift was then about forty-seven, at the age when vanity is strongly excited by the amorous attention of a young woman.

Ellis, 'that we have a daughter so prone to the detestable vices of pride, vanity, and deceit!'

I had made myself dependent on him; I was still in his power, and he had again driven me into the vanities of the world which I had abandoned: I was compelled to allow to his eloquence full mastery over me, and almost felt he was in the right.

Burial space extending no farther than the roots of a sentinel cypress told the tale of one man's vanity or devotion.

A man would find out, for instance, how much there was in him besides personal vanity and love of approbation.

In a flash, she stood before him, her shallow, childish vanity unmasked.

The boy's crude efforts at veiled sentiment, his languishing glances had been incense to her vanity.

The average worshiper may hurry over his prayers, but the devotee of vanity must not make haste with her toilet.

Sycophancy was as acceptable as real regard, since each catered to his vanity.

In this way, he tried to gratify at once his intellectual vanity and his more vulgar ambition.

His vanity was gratified by the sweetest homage of all, the unconscious, unspoken love and admiration of the young girl.

Trust him with a secret, and he will surely discover it, either through vanity or levity.

That was intolerable: she would not gratify his vanity and humble herself in this way.

Swift was then about forty-seven, at an age when vanity is strongly excited by the amorous attention of a young woman.

The baby blue eyes have a look of admiration that is extremely gratifying to the young man's vanity.

Aunt Marjorie would scold you, child, for praising my looks to my face; she would say you were encouraging vanity.

His vanity, however, was secretly gratified, and we have said that this was his weak point.