vanity

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Excessive pride

Nouns

1. vanity, conceit, conceitedness; immodesty, self-esteem, self-love, self-praise; complacency, smugness, amour-propre, hubris; ego trip. See boasting, selfishness.

2. [false] pride, airs, pretensions; egotism, egoism; priggishness; coxcombery, vainglory, pretense, ostentation; insolence.

3. egotist, egoist, prig, pretender, fop, coxcomb, know-it-all.

Verbs — be vain, put oneself forward; fish for compliments; give oneself airs; boast; presume, swagger, strut; plume or preen oneself; turn one's head, go to one's head, have a big head, flatter oneself. Informal, get on one's high horse. Slang, put on side, the dog, or the ritz, hot dog.

Adjectives — vain [as a peacock], conceited, immodest, overweening, pert, forward; haughty, puffed-up (see pride); prideful, vainglorious, high-flown, ostentatious; self-satisfied, self-centered, full of oneself, smug, complacent, opinionated; imperious, arrogant, cocky, too big for one's britches, immodest, pretentious, priggish; ego[t]istic; soi-disant; unabashed, unblushing. Informal, swell-headed, stuck-up.

Adverbs — vainly, priggishly, pridefully, proudly, haughtily, etc.

Quotations — Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity (Bible), Who does not detest a haughty man? (Euripides), Vanity is the greatest of all flatterers (La Rochefoucauld), The most violent passions sometimes leave us at rest, but vanity agitates us constantly (La Rochefoucauld), Vanity is only being sensitive to what other people probably think of us (Paul Valéry), The highest form of vanity is love of fame (George Santayana).

Antonyms, see modesty.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Personal conceit]

Syn. conceit, narcissism, self-love, ostentation, display, show, self-admiration, self-glorification, self-applause, pretension, vainglory, conceitedness, coxcombery, foppishness, complacency, smugness; see also pride 1 .

Ant. modesty*, diffidence, bashfulness.

2. [Futility]

Syn. idleness, emptiness, uselessness; see futility .

3. [A toilet case]

Syn. vanity box, vanity roll, vanity case, vanity table, compact, double compact, toilet kit, powder case, make-up case.

See Synonym Study at pride .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. pride vainglory, self-admiration, conceit, ego, *ego trip, egotism, narcissism, arrogance, boastfulness, self-importance, smugness. ''[That which]

keeps persons in favor with themselves who are out of favor with all others.''—Shakespeare. ''The greatest of all flatterers.''—La Rochefoucauld. ''An itch for the praise of fools.''—Robert Browning.

2. futility uselessness, worthlessness, emptiness, hollowness.

ANT.: 1. modesty, humility, humbleness, self-effacement. 2. worth, usefulness

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. A regarding of oneself with undue favor: amour-propre, conceit, ego, egoism, egotism, narcissism, pride, vainglory, vainness. Slang: ego trip. See SELF-LOVE. 2. The condition or quality of being useless or ineffective: boot-lessness, fruitlessness, futility, unavailingness, unprofitableness, uselessness, vainness. See THRIVE, USED.