Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VAN'I-TY, n. [Fr. vanité; L. vanitas, from vanus, vain.]

1. Emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity. Eccles. i.
2. Fruitless desire or endeavor. Vanity possesseth many who are desirous to know the certainty of things to come. – Sidney.
3. Trifling labor that produces no good. – Ralegh.
4. Emptiness; untruth. Here I may well show the vanity of what is reported in the story of Walsingham. – Davies.
5. Empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment. Sin with vanity had fill'd the works of men. – Milton. Think not when woman's transient breath is fled, / That all her vanities at once are dead; / Succeeding vanities she still regards. – Pope.
6. Ostentation; arrogance. – Ralegh.
7. Inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride, inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations. Fops can not be cured of their vanity. Vanity is the food of fools. – Swift. No man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity. – Johnson.