in vain
If you do something in vain, you do it with no result, or to no effect. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to make it clear that Union soldiers did not die in vain.
If an effort is futile, it's in vain. You might spend time and money campaigning to be school president, handing out bumper stickers and homemade cupcakes, all in vain — despite your hard work, you don't win the election. When you wait in vain for the phone to ring, it never does. In vain is modeled after the Latin in vanum, and it keeps the original sense of the word vain, "unprofitable" or "devoid of value."
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to no avail“he looked for her in vain”synonyms: vainly
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Vocabulary lists containing in vain
Perhaps the ultimate call to arms, Patrick Henry's speech makes a case for the inevitability of the American Revolution. On March 23, 1775 Virginian patriots met at St. John’s Church in Richmond to discuss support for fellow colonists in Massachusetts where Parliament had sent four regiments of troops. Leading the call for Virginian’s to act was Patrick Henry. In proposing that Virginia prepare itself to fight he delivered an emotional speech ending with his immortal words, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
In this prequel set before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer are forced by a magician to be his test subjects for rings created to travel between worlds.
Karana's people have left her behind on the island where she was born. Now she must learn to survive while contending with fearsome wild dogs, an unforgiving landscape, and her own loneliness.