Johnson's Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, defines enthusiasm as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication."

He had always chosen the big picture: the greater good, the burden of responsibility, the vain belief that he alone could save the world.

An addiction for gamblers wasting away the family savings in the vain belief that one hand will set things right.

And it was this as much as anything which made Tebbitt hang on to the unrepentant Hilda in the vain belief that she would eventually settle down.

They have landed, it seems, in "a backward Christian land, unstable of government and possessed by vain beliefs."

The Leukos was fishing in the company of British trawlers and she may have positioned herself between these fleeing trawlers and the U-boat in the vain belief that her status as a neutral would be respected.

Joan Freeman reached out blindly with one hand and shut off the alarm clock, her eyes jammed shut in the vain belief that she could remain asleep if she did.

The latter are tightening up policy in a vain belief that this should ease the problems, make integration a smoother process and lead to fewer people reaching our borders.

For too long, man has had the vain belief that he could control nature, but now we see that this is impossible.