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Vainly in sentence

58 examples of Vainly in a sentence

A woman entered with a pot full of rancid native sweetmeats, and tried vainly to make one of the men eat of her delicacies.
The four horsemen looked round them with astonishment, for they sought vainly in their minds to know who this other person could be.
And suppose he tackled me again with this logomachy, which might vainly have been set before ancient Oedipus.
My curiosity was highly excited, my uncle vainly tried to restrain me.
My feverish hand has vainly attempted to describe upon paper its strange and wonderful details.
With every impulsion the oscillation increased, those in front trying vainly to steady themselves against the rushes from behind, until suddenly there came a sharp snap, two white stakes with earth clinging to their points flew into the outer ring, and a spray of people, dashed from the solid wave behind, were thrown against the line of the beaters-out.
Neb ended his account by saying what had been his grief at finding the inanimate body, in which he vainly sought for the least sign of life.
It may even be that, having arrived several months ago, she has again sailed after having vainly searched for some trace of Ayrton.
At length, as he vainly fancied, it presented itself.
He paced the apartment to and fro, now vainly exhorting the terrified maiden to compose herself, now hesitating concerning his own line of conduct.
Think not we long remained blind to the idiotical folly of our founders, who forswore every delight of life for the pleasure of dying martyrs by hunger, by thirst, and by pestilence, and by the swords of savages, while they vainly strove to defend a barren desert, valuable only in the eyes of superstition.
Hearing her husband's step she stopped and looked at the door, vainly trying to assume a severe and contemptuous expression.
'Not a word, not a movement of yours will I ever forget, nor can I...''Enough, enough!' she cried, vainly trying to give a severe expression to her face, into which he was gazing eagerly.
The restive horse tugged at the reins, now to one side, now to the other, trying to deceive her rider, and Vronsky vainly sought by voice and hand to soothe her.
So much the worse for you,' he thought, like a man who having vainly tried to extinguish a fire should be vexed at his vain exertions and say to it: 'Well, go on and burn, it is your own fault.'
He knew that when the time came, and he saw his opponent before him vainly trying to look indifferent, his speech would naturally be far more fluent and better than if he prepared it beforehand.
'You have killed a bear, I hear?' said Kitty, vainly trying to catch a wayward, slippery pickled mushroom with her fork, and so shaking the lace of her sleeve through which her arm gleamed white.
Aouda in vain attempted to retain Mr. Fogg; as vainly did the detective endeavour to make the quarrel his.
'Even if all is for the best,' said the elder, in a very shrill comical voice which she vainly tried to soften, 'the lovers will not be here before three o'clock to-morrow.'
It occurred to him to light a fire, but he tried vainly to raise the rusted damper.
We were walking side by side ...I vainly tried to create a diversion from the sadness which was coming over all three of us.
Patrice had been vainly insisting for a long time that she should empty her glass, until at last Meaulnes leaned towards her and said gently: 'You must drink, dear little Valentine.'
While disease had thus become an inhabitant of Lowood, and death its frequent visitor; while there was gloom and fear within its walls; while its rooms and passages steamed with hospital smells, the drug and the pastille striving vainly to overcome the effluvia of mortality, that bright May shone unclouded over the bold hills and beautiful woodland out of doors.
But as matters really stood, to watch Miss Ingram's efforts at fascinating Mr. Rochester, to witness their repeated failure--herself unconscious that they did fail; vainly fancying that each shaft launched hit the mark, and infatuatedly pluming herself on success, when her pride and self-complacency repelled further and further what she wished to allure--to witness _this_, was to be at once under ceaseless excitation and ruthless restraint.
I longed only for what suited me--for the antipodes of the Creole: and I longed vainly.
He would have me sought for: vainly.
I recalled the voice I had heard; again I questioned whence it came, as vainly as before: it seemed in _me_--not in the external world.
How many systems vainly fling themselves buzzing against that eternal pane!"
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