vain effort

He looked about him in a vain effort at orientation.

He made a vain effort to close the door, then laughed.

I took a deep breath in a vain effort to clear my head, then stood up.

Three of the Reds lost their lives in vain efforts to get him.

She pushed against his shoulders in a vain effort to hold him off.

He tells of his own vain efforts to trace them.

She made one more vain effort and then burst into tears.

His lips fell apart in the vain effort to answer.

The old man turned just in time to see him coming, and made a vain effort to jerk the lever.

I had visited her often in the London hospital where vain efforts were made to stop the spread of cancer.

She made an effort, a vain effort to obey him.

He had rolled over and over on the floor in vain efforts to free himself.

Then they went up in vain effort to block out the terrible animal screams.

It was agonizingly difficult, and at last he made himself cease the vain effort.

But as the water rises he starts to struggle in a vain effort to free himself from the chamber.

Thomson made a vain effort to speak but died in the arms of Fraser.

Should she make a vain effort to plead innocence the Church will ask for the full penalty under the law.

He must be careful not to cause lasting damage to the economy in a vain effort to save his own skin.

And at last, after many vain efforts, I managed to procure a supply of the drug.

Half an hour was lost in vain efforts.

The company was actually renting a car for him in their vain effort to curry public goodwill.

Mara shifted upon her mat in a vain effort to find a more comfortable position.

He then made a vain effort to obtain a bride from the court of Constantinople.

So he closed his eyes again, and squinted fiercely in a vain effort to organize things.

The old bill had been watered down in a vain effort to win White House support.