inane, a. and n.
(ɪˈneɪn)
[ad. L. inān-is empty, useless, vain.]
A. adj.
1. Empty, void.
| 1662 Glanvill Lux Orient. ix. (1682) 72 To have confined his omnipotence to work only in one little spot of an infinite inane capacity. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke xxx, Dilating into vast inane infinities. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. iii. (1872) 79 To live..like inane phantasms, and to leave their life as a paltry contribution to the guano mountains. |
2. Of persons, their actions, etc.: Void or destitute of sense; silly, senseless; empty-headed.
| 1819 Shelley Cenci iii. i. 277 Some inane and vacant smile. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. vii, We listen..to the inanest hubbub. 1852 A. Jameson Leg. Madonna (1857) 12 We have merely inane prettiness. 1885 Manch. Exam. 11 Nov. 3/1 To us the book seems a very inane, tiresome, and purposeless affair. |
3. Comb., as inane-visaged adj.
| 1876 C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 54 An inane-visaged man. |
B. n.
1. That which is inane, void, or empty; void or empty space; vacuity; the ‘formless void’ of infinite space.
| 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. ii. 257 An infinite number of small imperceptible Bodies, that floated up and down in a vast infinite Inane. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. vii. §10 The capacious mind of man..that..makes excursions into the incomprehensible Inane. 1700 S. Parker Six Philos. Ess. 5 Atoms..dispers'd and dancing in the great Inane. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vii. i, So much is getting abolished; fleeting swiftly into the Inane. 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 40, I saw the flaring atom-streams And torrents of her myriad universe, Ruining along the illimitable inane. |
2. An empty-headed, unintelligent person.
| 1710 Pope Let. to Cromwell 17 May, Being all alike Inanes, we saunter to one another's habitations, and daily assist each other in doing nothing at all. |
Hence iˈnanely adv., emptily, senselessly.
| 1883 Harper's Mag. May 894/1 What sport..sounds more inanely foolish than confetti-throwing? 1895 Pall Mall Mag. VII. 516 ‘Can't you push on a bit?’ I said, somewhat inanely. |