a. Also 6–8 vain glorious, 6– vain-glorious. [f. VAINGLORY sb. Cf. med.L. vānaglōriōsus (OF. vana-, vaneglorious), Sp. and It. vanaglorioso, Pg. vanglorioso.]
1. Filled with, given to, indulging in, vainglory; inordinately boastful or proud of one’s own abilities, actions, or qualities; excessively and ostentatiously vain. a. Const. of.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fables, Cock & Fox. Nyse proud men, woid and vanegloreous Of kin and blude.
1648. Gage, West Ind., 160. Being not a little vain glorious of what he had done with me.
1729. Law, Serious Call, xviii. (1732), 330. They think it a part of their duty to be proud, envious, and vain-glorious of their own accomplishments.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 715. When he call’d, Vain-glorious of her charms, his Vashti forth To grace the full pavilion.
b. Without const.
c. 1510. More, Picus, Wks. 6/2. Not the knowlage of the Hebrew, Chaldei, and Arabie language, beside Greke & Latin, could make him vaingloriouse.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., Char. Pers. A Vaine-glorious Knight, over-Englishing his travels, and wholly consecrated to singularity; the very Jacobs staffe of complement.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. xi. (1640), 88. Be not vaine-glorious, studying to doe some earthly vaine thing, for which you may be talked of farre and neere.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xi. 49. Vain-glorious men … delight in supposing themselves gallant men.
1713. Young, Last Day, III. 79. Look round, vain-glorious muse, and you whoe’er Devote yourselves to fame, and think her fair.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Vain glorious, or ostentatious man, one who boasts without reason.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 139. Where is the fame which the vainglorious mighty of the earth Seek to eternize?
1840. Ainsworth, Tower of London (1864), 370. One of the galleries of the palace, where the vain-glorious mannikin was lingering in the hope of being admitted to the royal presence.
1881. Tylor, Anthropology, 384. Even the vainglorious scribes of Egypt would hardly venture to record events without a foundation of fact.
absol. a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., Prol. Our Comedie … against the vayne glorious doth inuey.
1596. Norden, Progr. Pietie (1847), 173. Though it please the vain-glorious for a time it will bring repentance.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., viii. 101. He baiteth the hook … for the vaine-glorious with popularitie.
1850. W. Irving, Mahomet, viii. (1853), 43. For God loveth not the arrogant and vainglorious.
transf. and fig. 1602. Nixon, Chr. Navy, B ij. Lofty mindes That in this world doe seeke to glister so, Blowne on this rocke by fond vaine glorious winds, Fall headlong downe.
1619. J. Taylor (Water P.), Kicksey Winsey, Wks. (1630), 36. Itch’d with the vain-glorious worme, To write and lye.
2. Characterized by, indicative of, or proceeding from vainglory.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, 4. Sic vane glorious tetels and namis and pouers.
1575. Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., Wks. 1910, II. 68. Wandring … in a vayne glorious oppinion of their owne wit.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 331. Such stately honours and vaine-glorious praises as he in his life time enioyed.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. iv. § 11. Whether that bee ground of that vain-glorious boast … I here dispute not.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 25 Oct. 1667. The Vice-Chancellor’s letter … were too vaine glorious to insert.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., IV. 610. Neptune that speech vain-glorious hearing, grasp’d His trident.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., VI. ix. (1849), 376. Let not my readers imagine … that I am indulging in vainglorious boastings.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pictures, xvi. 243. ‘See Naples and then die,’ is the vain-glorious saying of the Neapolitans.
1896. Dk. Argyll, Philos. Belief, 268. They were the very incarnations of vainglorious pride.
