not worth a whistle vs vain

not worth a whistle

adj
  • Worthless or pointless. 

vain

adj
  • Effecting no purpose; pointless, futile. 

  • Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason. 

  • Showy; ostentatious. 

  • Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying. 

How often have the words not worth a whistle and vain occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )