sparrows in vain

non-standard
phrase This is not a recognized or standard idiom in English. Its meaning is not established and would have to be inferred from its context.
His attempts to find a deeper meaning in the text were like chasing sparrows in vain; the ideas were small, fleeting, and ultimately uncatchable.
🇪🇸 asustar gorriones en vano

📖 Seen in the wild

The whole thing precisely was, the greatest nastiness precisely lay in my being shamefully conscious every moment, even in moments of the greatest bile, that I was not only not a wicked but was not even an embittered man, that I was simply frightening sparrows in vain, and pleasing myself with it.
collected by @missha

✏️ sparrows in vain in a sentence

I've searched through several dictionaries of idioms, but this phrase 'sparrows in vain' doesn't seem to exist.
The poet wrote of 'sparrows in vain', likely coining the phrase to evoke a sense of delicate, wasted effort.
Are you sure you heard that correctly? 'Sparrows in vain' is not a common saying.
Without context, a sentence like 'The birdwatcher looked for sparrows in vain' would be interpreted literally: he was looking for sparrows and found none.
Her small kindnesses felt like sparrows in vain, offered but seemingly unnoticed by the world.

🌱 Where it comes from

This phrase does not have a known etymology because it is not a standard English idiom. It combines the common bird 'sparrow' with the adverbial phrase 'in vain' (meaning without success), but the combination itself has no established history or shared meaning.

💬 Quick answers

What does 'sparrows in vain' mean?

'Sparrows in vain' is not a standard English idiom and has no established meaning. It is likely a creative turn of phrase or a misremembered expression, and its meaning would depend entirely on the context.

Is 'sparrows in vain' a real idiom?

No, it is not a recognized idiom, proverb, or saying in the English language. You will not find it in standard dictionaries or collections of idioms.

What is a similar, correct idiom for futile effort?

For the idea of a futile or hopeless effort, you could use established idioms like 'a wild goose chase', 'tilting at windmills', 'flogging a dead horse', or simply state the action was 'in vain'.

1 word nerd collected it

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