vanity
part of speech
noun (vanity, vanities)
meaning for a pupil
1) Being too proud of how you look or what you can do; caring too much about being admired. tree →
2) (Bible, old) Something worthless or empty; «vanity of vanities, all is vanity» (Ecclesiastes) means everything in this life passes away. tree →
3) A vanity or vanity unit is a cupboard under a bathroom basin, or a dressing table. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Here it means worthless idols, empty things people worship instead of God. In Ecclesiastes it means something empty and fleeting, like a breath, as in "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Interpretation: Moses' song says God is angry at idols. Tradition reads "no-god" and "vanities" as foreign gods that have no power. Koheleth is read as teaching that worldly things pass away, so people should fear God and keep His commandments. In the primary lessons: A character and values word. Toad in The Wind in the Willows is full of vanity — he sings songs praising himself («The world has held great Heroes … but never a name to go down to fame compared with that of Toad!»). In fables like the crow and the fox, vanity makes the crow drop the cheese. In the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes uses «vanity» for things that do not last. In homes, a bathroom «vanity» is a piece of furniture.
examples
- They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god; they have provoked Me with their vanities; and I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people; I will provoke them with a vile nation. (Torah DEU.32.21, JPS 1917) tree →
- This also is vanity and a great evil. (Writings ECC.2.21, JPS 1917) tree →
- Vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth; all is vanity. (Writings ECC.12.8, JPS 1917) tree →
- This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (Writings ECC.2.26, JPS 1917) tree →
- Toad's vanity got him into trouble again and again. tree →
- The crow's vanity made it open its beak and drop the cheese. tree →
- It's not vanity to brush your hair. tree →
- «Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,» says the preacher in Ecclesiastes. tree →
- Her vanity made her look in every mirror. tree →
- The new bathroom has a white vanity with two drawers. tree →
- Do not let your vanity make you overestimate your powers. tree →
note
Uncountable in the first meaning; countable «vanities» for things. Adjective: «vain». Phrase «vanity project» = something done mainly to look important.
In the corpora
- Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope,
- All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as things of nought, and vanity.
- Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nought; their molten images are wind and confusion.
- But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock;
- They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «vanity» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.