take in vain

idiomatic phrase

: to use (a name) profanely or without proper respect

Numbers of clergymen have from time to time reproached me for making jokes about religion; and they have almost always invoked the authority of that very sensible commandment which says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

—G. K. Chesterton

… I was mercifully preserved by that great God whose name they had blasphemed and taken in vain …

—Daniel Defoe

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above