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Webster 1913 Edition


Vacancy

Va′can-cy

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Vacancies
(#)
.
[Cf. F.
vacance
.]
1.
The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness.
All dispositions to idleness or
vacancy
, even before they are habits, are dangerous.
Sir H. Wotton.
2.
That which is vacant.
Specifically: –
(a)
Empty space; vacuity; vacuum.
How is’t with you,
That you do bend your eye on
vacancy
?
Shakespeare
(b)
An open or unoccupied space between bodies or things; an interruption of continuity; chasm; gap;
as, a
vacancy
between buildings; a
vacancy
between sentences or thoughts
.
(c)
Unemployed time; interval of leisure; time of intermission; vacation.
Time lost partly in too oft idle
vacancies
given both to schools and universities.
Milton.
No interim, not a minute's
vacancy
.
Shakespeare
Those little
vacancies
from toil are sweet.
Dryden.
(d)
A place or post unfilled; an unoccupied office;
as, a
vacancy
in the senate, in a school, etc.

Webster 1828 Edition


Vacancy

VA'CANCY

,
Noun.
[L. vacans, from vaco, to be empty; Heb. to empty.]
1.
Empty space; vacuity. [In this sense, vacuity is now generally used.]
2.
Chasm; void space between bodies or objects; as a vacancy between two beams or boards in a building; a vacancy between two buildings; a vacancy between words in a writing.
3.
The state of being destitute of an incumbent; want of the regular officer to officiate in a place. Hence also it signifies the office, post or benefice which is destitute of an incumbent; as a vacancy in a parish; vacancies in the treasury of war office. There is no vacancy on the bench of the supreme court.
4.
Time of leisure; freedom from employment; intermission of business.
Those little vacancies from toils are sweet.
5.
Listlessness; emptiness of thought.
6.
A place or office not occupied, or destitute of a person to fill it; as a vacancy in a school.

Definition 2024


vacancy

vacancy

English

Noun

vacancy (plural vacancies)

  1. An unoccupied position or job.
  2. An available room in a hotel; guest house, etc.
  3. Empty space.
    • 1993, James Michie, trans. Ovid, The Art of Love, Book II:
      Sky was set above earth, land ringed with sea, / Chaos retired to its own vacancy [...].
  4. Lack of intelligence or understanding.
  5. (physics) A defect in a crystal caused by the absence of an atom in a lattice

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