What's the difference between haughty and vain?

Haughty


Definition:

  • (superl.) High; lofty; bold.
  • (superl.) Disdainfully or contemptuously proud; arrogant; overbearing.
  • (superl.) Indicating haughtiness; as, a haughty carriage.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But he was apt to say to those with a haughty attitude things like: "Do you know who I am?
  • (2) The mountain is haughty and proud, an enormous glacier fills the valley in front and in the foreground – giving scale to the scene and a sense of infeasibility to the task facing the men inside them – is a little collection of tents.
  • (3) In "Marching (As Seen from the Left File)", for instance, he describes the men from the perspective of one of them and in "Break of Day in the Trenches" he identifies with the lowly rat against the "haughty athletes".
  • (4) One member, in a very haughty voice, said, rather like Lady Bracknell's "A handbag?"
  • (5) Janice Turner, The Times 'Haughty' … Gwyneth Paltrow.
  • (6) The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said Mandela "was never haughty.
  • (7) Her supposed haughtiness, she claims, stems simply from a lack of confidence.
  • (8) Nobody in Whitehall wants to risk a repeat of the calamity of 1973 – when President Richard Nixon ordered an end to intelligence sharing with Britain, having taken a dim view of Edward Heath's cosiness to Europe, and his haughty attitude to the US.
  • (9) The SNP leader would like to stage the referendum in 2014, the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, one of those rare Scottish victories over England on the battlefield when Robert the Bruce and his stubborn warriors defeated a large and haughty force of English knights.
  • (10) The surprise in the film was not just that the French had made a decent rom-com – "We were all saying, suddenly, when it was made, that it was sort of the best of the French and the British types of these films, which is rare, and why it works" – but that Paradis, with no comedy films behind her, had made such a fine rom-com lead: mesmerisingly watchable in the first half in particular, when she plays haughty and hard-to-get; before, of course, the melt.
  • (11) Strong-arming a second administration out of consulting a suffering populace could look dangerously like haughty contempt.
  • (12) Many in Ireland, used to the populist bonhomie of working-class male politicians such as Bertie Ahern, have always found her cool, even haughty.
  • (13) Not many clubs can say that,” Wenger said, during a slightly haughty press conference.
  • (14) Jadranka adds: "This was my offence," and she pulls out an identity card from the period: a haughty face, high cheekbones, jet black hair and very beautiful.
  • (15) Tall and with a haughty baritone not unlike that of his conservative arch-enemy William F Buckley Jr, Vidal appeared cold and cynical on the surface.
  • (16) And when the British belatedly repented their haughty disdain for the European project, and applied to join, it was under Harold Macmillan’s Tory government.
  • (17) As if to atone for that disaster, its latest ill-advised form of words, chosen to pacify the restive masses, is " It is not prejudiced to worry about immigration " – but that won't dispel the lingering whiff of haughty moral judgment (shades here of a danger that awaits all out-of-touch politicians: the rhetorical equivalent of Ceausescu's right hand, attempting to still the crowd as the gesture made them even more irate).
  • (18) His comments have a grain of truth in them, certainly, but they played to the Times's weak spot – the impression that it can radiate a patrician aloofness, of haughty disregard of the lessons it could learn from competitors.
  • (19) Dimitar Berbatov slotted it away with haughty indifference to mere goalkeepers at spot-kicks.
  • (20) And the moment they find one, they launch into a performance of such deranged, self-assured haughtiness, the Daily Mail seems hopelessly amateur by comparison.

Vain


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying.
  • (superl.) Destitute of forge or efficacy; effecting no purpose; fruitless; ineffectual; as, vain toil; a vain attempt.
  • (superl.) Proud of petty things, or of trifling attainments; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason; conceited; puffed up; inflated.
  • (superl.) Showy; ostentatious.
  • (n.) Vanity; emptiness; -- now used only in the phrase in vain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For example, if we purchase new examination equipment without any consideration or if we decide what type of equipment to introduce according to the common advice of the purchase committee of the hospital or the medical school, then we cannot design an ideal system of laboratory examinations and are forced to invest a large sum of money in vain.
  • (2) The George Bush campaign juggernaut hit the first serious pothole of its cash-fuelled drive to the presidency yesterday, as the Texas governor tried in vain to fend off questions about whether he had used cocaine as a young man.
  • (3) Full set list, show one (thanks to princevault.com ) Take Me With U (acoustic) Raspberry Beret (acoustic) U Got The Look (acoustic) Instrumental jam (acoustic) Train In Vain (acoustic) Q & A (1) incl.
  • (4) VaIN rarely is an isolated lesion and frequently is preceded by, or coexists with, other types of premalignant genital squamous neoplasia.
  • (5) He’s the kind of self-styled intellectual journalist in politics who caused so much trouble in 20th century politics, not a bad man, decent enough in his way, but not as smart as he thinks he is, vain with it.
  • (6) For long spells, West Ham searched in vain for inspiration as they tried to find a way past Newcastle United’s defence and end a run of three matches without a win.
  • (7) Further, in a vain attempt for a boost in the Hoosier State, Cruz unveiled former rival Carly Fiorina as his running mate if he receives the nomination and was able to cajole the state’s sitting governor, Mike Pence, into an endorsement.
  • (8) The next few days may well determine whether, this time, such loyalty will be in vain; but, while yearning for a clarion call and what was described as "vision" in this paper's leading article yesterday, I need to pose some pretty stark questions to Guardian readers.
  • (9) He aims to put his newspapers, including the Times and the Sun, behind a paywall, something described by the co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, as a vain attempt to "put the genie back in the bottle".
  • (10) In vain I argued that Robin Day seemed to wear the same jacket and shirt every week, and fled back to radio."
  • (11) Now I can feel that my son's blood wasn't totally lost in vain.
  • (12) In vain will Cameron plead that blame should lie with Brown and his Labour colleagues.
  • (13) At a media day held to mark the completion of the training and arranged before the tragedy, soldier after soldier came forward to insist that, though they were apprehensive, they were determined to do a good job, partly to make sure that their six colleagues had not died in vain.
  • (14) He somehow scrambled to deuce and delighted in forcing Dimitrov to chase in vain from one side of the court to the other to go 6-5 up.
  • (15) Assessment of patients between 9 and 99 (mean 55) months after partial colpectomy for VAIN showed no recurrence of disease in ten patients (83%).
  • (16) The scientific establishment struggled in vain to produce evidence that would reassure the public.
  • (17) No grieving wants to go through that, and our city doesn’t want to go through that.” Murphy said an accelerated program to equip Baltimore police officers with body cameras would mean Gray “did not die in vain”.
  • (18) His mother has said she tried in vain to get help for him.
  • (19) But he flailed in vain as the police officers grabbed him, one forcing his T-shirt roughly up over his head as three or four others laid in with their wooden batons, dragging and pushing him to a line of waiting Land Cruisers and more helmeted cops.
  • (20) As Steve spends half his money trying in vain to keep a scowl off Michelle's face and the rest comfort eating, Liz stumped up half the cash.