Definition of "vainly" []

• In a vain manner; to no avail. (adverb)

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• "While the woman goggled at me, her brain vainly attempting to take precious processing cycles away from analyzing reality TV to comprehend what had just been said to her, I stepped around her, handed my jar of salsa to the cashier, and completed my purchase."
• "It was plain that he had been misled for once, that what he suspected had not come to pass, and that he must seek elsewhere the light which had gleamed upon him vainly from the Danish town."
• "'I must insist,' he called vainly after the doctor, who prudently circled about the house and waited a quarter of an hour as he sat upon the wall, eavesdropping on the conversation of the two young people."