a vainglorious woman who always insists on being the center of attention

Recent Examples on the Web

The Thrombeys are a classically vainglorious clan of the white upper middle class. Estelle Tang, Vogue, "On the Perfect Casting of Knives Out," 4 Dec. 2019

Alma lived for another sixty-two years, years of vainglorious strutting, scheming, and disloyalty, years chronicled by her own memoirs and by her later diaries (which have not been translated into English). Cathleen Schine, The New York Review of Books, "It Had to Be Her," 7 Jan. 2020

The role is a wonderful showcase for Menzies, who sheds the petulance of his predecessor and brings us a Philip who is both prideful and impotent, vainglorious and deeply insecure. Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, "The Crown season 3 review: New cast, who dis?," 5 Nov. 2019

This is a strategy that must supersede any individual’s vainglorious pursuit of the presidency. Adam Eichen, The New Republic, "How David Koch’s 1980 Fantasy Became America’s Current Reality," 27 Aug. 2019

The 62-year-old was brilliant, but also obsessive, vainglorious and prim. The Economist, "The welfare state needs updating," 12 July 2018

As early as his Eton and Oxford days, colleagues thought him vainglorious and untrustworthy. Stephen Benedict Dyson, Washington Post, "Tired of American news? ‘A Very English Scandal’ plunges you into 1970s British social repression and political ambition.," 3 July 2018

Mossadegh, who had once been a champion of the rule of law and national sovereignty, became increasingly autocratic and vainglorious after Parliament nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. in 1951. Reuel Marc Gerecht And, WSJ, "Don’t Fear Regime Change in Iran," 11 June 2018

No pro sports organization is more clandestine than the Raiders (Silver & Black Ops?), and yet none is more vainglorious. John Walters, Newsweek, "Raiders of the Lost Art of Winning: Will Jim Harbaugh Be Their Indiana Jones?," 5 Dec. 2014

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'vainglorious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.