Dictionary De - En
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De - Pt| English Dictionary: avocation | by the DICT Development Group |
| 2 results for avocation | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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Avocation \Av`o*ca"tion\, n. [L. avocatio.] 1. A calling away; a diversion. [Obs. or Archaic] Impulses to duty, and powerful avocations from sin. --South. 2. That which calls one away from one's regular employment or vocation. Heaven is his vocation, and therefore he counts earthly employments avocations. --Fuller. By the secular cares and avocations which accompany marriage the clergy have been furnished with skill in common life. --Atterbury. Note: In this sense the word is applied to the smaller affairs of life, or occasional calls which summon a person to leave his ordinary or principal business. Avocation (in the singular) for vocation is usually avoided by good writers. 3. pl. Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation. There are professions, among the men, no more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women. --Richardson. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations. --Macaulay. | |
