| 释义 |
vacant, a. and n.|ˈveɪkənt|
Forms: 3–6 vacaunt (5 vacavnt), 4– vacant, 5–7 vacante.
[a. OF. (also mod.F.) vacant (= It., Sp., Pg. vacante), or ad. L. vacant-, vacans, pres. pple. of vacāre to be empty, etc.: cf. prec. In early senses the evidence is scanty until the latter part of the 16th century or later.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of a benefice, office, position, etc.: Not filled, held, or occupied; in respect of which a successor to the previous incumbent or holder has not been appointed.
Freq. of ecclesiastical benefices (see first group of quots.).
(a)c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 72/51 Þe bischopriche of wiricestre vacaunt was and lere. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 110 Þer Steuen..suore, Þat if a bisshopriche vacant wer þe se, Þe kyng, no non of his, suld chalange þat of fe. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 237 b, Many churches lye vacant. 1577Holinshed Chron. I. 223/1 The Pope had accursed the english people, bicause they suffred the Bishops seas to be vacant so long a time. 1611in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. I. 546 There hath fallen vacant a benefice annexed to y⊇ vicariat. 1671J. Davies (title), The Ceremonies of the Vacant See: or a True Relation of what passes at Rome upon the Pope's Death. 1803Nelson Let. to R. Suckling 23 Mar., Mr. Horace Suckling..is very anxious that you should present him to the vacant living. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 95 The archbishopric of York was vacant. 1887New York Independent 8 Sept. 16 One sixth of its churches are ‘vacant’, meaning of course, without pastors.
(b)1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 381 That he myȝhte haue reioycede an oþer tetrarchye, beenge vacante þat tyme. c1440Promp. Parv. 507/2 Vacavnt, not occupyyd, vacans. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 303 b, Yet hath no man hetherto desyred the same places..as common & vacant to be geven them. 1607Shakes. Timon v. i. 145 Speciall Dignities, which vacant lye For thy best vse and wearing. 1681Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 87 You may be assured yt as soon as this or any other place is vacant you shall be put in into it. 1805Med. Jrnl. XIV. 192 Dr. Arneman..has undertaken to superintend the foreign department of the Medical and Physical Journal, vacant by the decease of the late Dr. Noehden. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 634 If the throne was vacant the Estates of the Realm might place William in it. 1907Verney Mem. I. 115 Three places had fallen vacant.
†b. Const. of (an incumbent or holder). rare.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9697 Þe vifte was þat bissopriches & abbeies al so Þat vacauns were of prelas in þe kinges hond were ido. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 109 Northumbrelonde was vacante of a kynge viijthe yeres.
†c. Having no owner or possessor. Obs.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 16 The goodes of the Empire, whiche shall chaunce to be vacant, he shall geve away to no man. 1730Bailey (fol.), Vacant Effects (in Law) are such as are abandoned for want of an Heir, after the Death or Flight of their former Owner.
2. a. Devoid of all material contents or accessories; containing, or occupied by, nothing; unfilled, empty, void.
a1400–50Alexander 4774 For, fra it droȝe to þe derke ay till it dawid eftir, It was bot vacant & voide as vanite it were. [c1450Godstow Reg. 417 One voide place of ther owne lond. ] Ibid. The forsaid vacant place of lond.1634–5Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 15 In the middle a square vacant place, wherein the moulded brick is disposed. 1671Milton Samson 89 The Moon, When she deserts the night, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 1730–46Thomson Autumn 329 The billowy plain..floats wide; nor can evade..its [the blast's] seizing force; Or whirl'd in air, or into vacant chaff Shook waste. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty 8 The vacant space within the shell. Ibid. 91 It fills up the vacant angle under the arm. 1791Cowper Iliad xxiii. 472 Instant to his aid The Goddess hasted, to his vacant hand His whip restored. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. ix. 714 From that very moment, complaint was extinguished; and the voice of praise..occupied the vacant air. 1858Glenny Everyday Bk. 76/2 All the plants that are strong enough..may be planted in vacant places.
transf.a1822Shelley Death i. 6 All dead! those vacant names alone..remain. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 233 Philosophy was becoming more and more vacant and abstract.
b. Devoid of an occupant; not taken up by any one. Also fig.
1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 304 But now..that warre-thoughts Haue left their places vacant, in their roomes Come [etc.]. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. ii. i, There's not a vacant corner of my heart, But all is fild with deade Antonios losse. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 190 Instead Of Spirits maligne a better Race to bring Into thir vacant room. 1713Young Last Day iii. 220 Satan's accurs'd desertion to supply, And fill the vacant stations of the sky. 1780Burke Œcon. Reform. Wks. III. 279 The bleak winds..howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the doors of deserted guard-rooms. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xx, To see the vacant chair, and think ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone’. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 247 There was a spacious half of seat vacant in my little hooded carriage.
c. Of land, houses, etc.: Uninhabited, unoccupied, untenanted. Also, of a room: Not in use, disengaged.
1518Star Chamber Cases (Selden) II. 146 About viij c howseholdes in the same Towne desolate, vacante, and decayed. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. iii, Let the old souldiers..enter upon the vacant lands. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. (1818) II. 383 The new settlers will naturally convert their labour to the cultivation of the vacant soil. 1847Helps Friends in C. (1851) I. 2 A house which had long been vacant in our neighbourhood. 1891S. C. Scrivener Our Fields & Cities 140 There are at least a million and a-half acres likely to be vacant every autumn.
d. Marked or characterized by the absence of life, activity, or sound.
1791Cowper Iliad ii. 68 Amid the stillness of the vacant night. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xxxiv. 16 To drop head⁓foremost in the jaws Of vacant darkness and to cease. 1894Hall Caine Manxman iii. iv. 136 Somewhere in the dead and vacant dawn Philip went to bed.
e. Of water: Free from ice; open.
1853Kane Grinnell Exp. x. (1856) 71 In the morning of the 7th, a large vacant sheet of water showed itself to the westward.
3. a. With of. Devoid or destitute of, entirely lacking or free from, something.
a1400–50Alexander 5116 We at ere voide ay of vice & vacant of syn. a1450tr. De Imitatione iii. xxxii. 101 If þe state of þe herte be vacant of a riȝt fundement. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. i. 125 My person, which I waigh not, Being of those Vertues [truth and honesty] vacant. 1634Milton Comus 718 That no corner might Be vacant of her [i.e. Nature's] plenty. 1663Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. xxxii. (1687) 391 A company of select friends, vacant of business, and full of chearfulness, met together at one table. 1751Franklin Essays Wks. 1840 II. 319 Was the face of the earth vacant of other plants, it might be sowed and over⁓spread with one kind only. 1784R. Bage Barham Downs II. 7 The hour being vacant of business, he got upon his legs. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 175, I, to herd with narrow foreheads, vacant of our glorious gains! 1910Fairbairn Stud. Rel. & Theol. ii. ii. ii. 292 How could men vacant of good have affinities with Him [etc.]?
ellipt.1582N.T. (Rheims) 2 Peter i. 8 They shal make you not vacant [L. vacuos], nor without fruite.
†b. Empty-handed; destitute. Obs. rare.
1430–40Lydg. Bochas iv. vi. (MS. Bodl. 263), They banished hym neuer to come agayne: And so this tiraunt, vacant, wente in veyn Aboute the world as a fals Fugityff. 1576in Collier Illustr. E.E. Pop. Lit. No. 16. 44 So that none of us went vacant away, But of one of the parties had honestly our paye.
4. a. Of time: Free from, unoccupied with, affairs, business, or customary work; leisure. Also const. from (an action or occupation).
Freq. from c 1550 to c 1750; now Obs. or rare.
(a)1531Elyot Gov. i. viii, Puttyng one to hym..in vacant tymes from other more serious lernynge. Ibid. xviii, Alexander, in tymes vacaunt from bataile, delyted in that maner huntinge. a1548Hall Chron., Rich. III (1550) 34 Such euyl persones as wyl not leue one houre vacant from doyng and exercysing crueltie. 1631Byfield Doctr. Sabb. 80 Feriarum, that is, dayes vacant from pleading and labour.
(b)1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke xiv, He wil with good laisure at a vacaunt time sitte down [etc.]. 1593G. Harvey Pierces Super. To Rdr., Such scriblings are hardly worth the vacantest howers. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. ii. §7 The most active or busy man that hath been or can be, hath..many vacant times of leisure. 1631Gouge God's Arrows v. §9. 419 Vacant houres cannot better be spent then in the Artillery Garden. 1712Addison Spect. No. 471 ⁋3 The Memory relieves the Mind in her vacant Moments. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xviii. (1787) II. 104 Chosroes..consumed his vacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. 1805T. Lindley Voy. Brasil (1808) 34 The females, who fill up their vacant hours with this elegant amusement. 1815Jane Austen Emma I. iii. 35 Any vacant evening of his own blank solitude.
†b. Of persons: Not engaged or employed in (one's usual or regular) occupation or work; disengaged or free from labour or toil; at leisure; also, having nothing or little to do. Obs.
(a)1600Palfreyman Bauldwin's Mor. Philos. i. xliv. 28 When he was vacant from his labor, he wold write most eloquent..Comodies. a1628Preston New Covt. (1634) 152 Those that are vacant from such things are at rest.
(b)1631Byfield Doctr. Sabb. 154 They may be vacant as Christians. 1671Milton P.R. ii. 116 For Satan with slye preface to return Had left him vacant. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece i. xxvi. (1715) 158 If he can produce any vacant Person richer than himself. a1763Shenstone Elegies xix. 4 Another spring renews the soldier's toil, And finds me vacant in the rural cave. 1782Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) IX. 6933/2 In such excursions those vacant people [Laplanders] find a luxurious and ready repast in these fish.
absol.1753Smollett Ct. Fathom Ded., To instruct the ignorant, and entertain the vacant.
c. Characterized by, arising or proceeding from, absence of occupation, leisure, or idleness; undisturbed by business or work.
1615Sandys Trav. 256 Here vacant Life, here Peace her empire keepes. 1630Wotton Lett. (1907) II. 332 A great natural principle, that the vacantest thoughts are everywhere the worst. 1662Gunning Lent Fast 202 A season of vacant attendance on fasting and prayer. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. v, Every morning waked us to a repetition of toil; but the evening repaid it with vacant hilarity. 1777Macpherson Ossian Introd. 10 That poetical enthusiasm, which is better suited to a vacant and indolent state. 1866R. Chambers Ess. Fam. & Hum. Ser. ii. 89 An idle and vacant life..is not calculated to be a happy one.
d. At leisure to devote oneself to some object. Also of things, open or accessible to some influence, etc. Now rare or Obs.
1631Byfield Doctr. Sabb. 151 How much more ought Christians to bee vacant to God alone on the Lords day? 1660H. More Myst. Godl. v. xiv. 172 Grotius,..who by reason of his Political emploiments could not be so entirely vacant to the searching into so abstruse a Mystery. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 1 Tim. v. 13 Those that are taken up with Family Business of their own are not so vacant and liable to these Crimes. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 111 ⁋5 When the heart is vacant to every fresh form of delight. 1763― Let. to Boswell 8 Dec., Vacant to every object, and sensible of every impulse. 1838Sir J. Stephen Eccl. Ess. II. 184 So long as they shall be vacant to record..contrite reminiscences of a desire for roasted goose.
†e. At leisure for something. Obs.—1
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §147 Sir John Berkely,..who was the more vacant for that service by the reduction of Barnstable.
5. a. Of the mind or brain: Devoid of or unoccupied with thought or reflection. Chiefly poet.
1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Oct. 100 The vaunted verse a vacant head demaundes, Ne wont with crabbed care the Muses dwell. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 286 The wretched Slaue: Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind, Gets him to rest. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 122 The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind. 1781Cowper Retirem. 624 Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd. 1818S. E. Ferrier Marriage xv, The demon of ennui again took possession of her vacant mind. 1855Tennyson Daisy 106 Perchance, to lull the throbs of pain, Perchance, to charm a vacant brain.
†b. Abstracted or disengaged from (the body, etc.) in contemplation or reverie. Obs.—1
1680H. More Apocal. Apoc. 5, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day,..my mind being vacant from this earthly body, and external senses.
†c. Free from care or anxiety. Obs. rare.
a1639Wotton in Reliq. (1685) 171 The Duke..even in the midst of so many diversions, had continually a very pleasant and vacant face (as I may well call it) proceeding no doubt from a singular assurance in his temper. 1723Steele Conscious Lovers ii. i, Why so much Care in thy Countenance?.. You, who used to be so Gay, so Open, so Vacant!
6. a. Characterized by, exhibiting, or proceeding from, absence of intelligence or thought; expressionless, meaningless; inane.
1712Steele Spect. No. 515 ⁋4 The vacant look of a fine Lady is not to be preserved, if she admits any thing to take up her Thoughts but her own dear Person. 1780Cowper Progr. Error 205 Yet folly ever has a vacant stare. 1819Shelley Cenci iii. i. 277 Let me mask Mine own [looks] in some inane and vacant smile. 1830J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 31 The loud laugh of the woodpecker, joyous and vacant. 1841James Brigand i, His eyes gazed upon the scene, but with somewhat of a vacant aspect. 1878B. Taylor Deukalion ii. i. 56 Vacant are thine eyes, Cold thine insulted brow and mute thy lips.
b. Empty-headed, unthinking. rare.
1879Froude Cæsar xii. 163 Metellus was a vacant aristocrat, to be depended on for resisting popular demands, but without insight otherwise.
7. a. Comb., as vacant-eyed, vacant-looking, vacant-minded, vacant-seeming adjs.; vacant-heartedness, vacant-mindedness.
1796F. Burney Camilla III. 219 We all heard he was engaged to your beautiful vacant-looking cousin. 1836Poe in Southern Lit. Messenger Apr. 339/2 Not a broad, forced, loud vacant-minded joke, but a quiet, pungent, sly, laughter-moving conceit. 1846Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. (1852) 49 If they have formerly figured as beauties, the fickle voice of fashion now proclaims that they are ‘pretty, certainly, but silly and vacant-looking’. 1879Howells L. Aroostook xviii, Her frivolity—her not so much vacant-mindedness as vacant-heartedness. 1883J. Mackenzie Day-dawn Dark Places 272, I have been saddened by the vacant-minded pupil. 1922D. H. Lawrence Aaron's Rod xiii. 186 It was a large, vacant-seeming, Empire sort of drawing-room. 1936L. H. Myers Strange Glory ii. ix. 150 A boy of about ten.., ill-nourished and vacant-eyed. 1965J. A. Michener Source (1966) 59 From the shores of Morocco..came frightened, dirty, pathetic Jews, illiterate, often crippled with disease and vacant-eyed.
b. In phr. vacant possession, with reference to premises (esp. those offered for sale): available for occupation by the purchaser, not occupied by the vendor or a tenant or tenants.
The legal interpretation of the term can be modified in certain circumstances by agreement between the vendor and the purchaser.
1825H. Roscoe Treat. Law of Actions relating to Real Property I. 546 Ejectment cannot be maintained, as on a vacant possession, where there is any thing left by the tenant on the premises, however trifling. 1883Wharton's Law-Lexicon (ed. 7) 287/1 In case of vacant possession the writ may be served by posting a copy on some conspicuous part of the property. 1927Daily Tel. 24 May 4/7 Vacant possession at Michaelmas will be given of the Manor Farm, 428 acres, at Oxwick. 1946Law Rep. (King's Bench) 264 A vendor who leaves chattels of his own on property sold by him to an extent depriving the purchaser of the physical enjoyment of part of the property has failed to give vacant possession. 1973Country Life 15 Mar. 713/1 The average price of vacant-possession farms in England is {pstlg}273 an acre. 1976Morecambe Guardian 7 Dec. 28/1 (Advt.), Three bedroom semi⁓detached house with vacant possession.
B. n.
†1. Sc. A vacant estate. Obs.—1
c1475Rauf Coilȝear 758 And als the nixt vacant..That hapnis in France, quhair sa euer it fall, Forfaltour or fre waird..I gif the heir heritabilly.
†2. One who has held office but is for the time being unemployed or in retirement. Obs. rare.
[1602Segar Hon. Mil. & Civ. iv. xxi. 236 These diuers degrees were in the Emperiall Court called Administrantes, Vacantes, and Honorarii. ] Ibid. 237 Note likewise that the Officers whom we call Vacants are of two sorts.
†3. pl. A vacation. Obs.— 1
1647May Hist. Parl. i. iii. 35 The next Terme, after the ordinary vacants, to be held at the Burgh of Dendie.
†4. poet. A vacant space; a vacuum. Obs. rare.
1712Blackmore Creation v. 248 Ready by Turns to rise or to descend, Nature against a Vacant to defend. Ibid. vii. 355 Thou in the Vacant didst the Earth suspend.
Hence † ˈvacant v., (a) trans. to render vacant, in various senses; to vacate; (b) intr. to take a vacation. Obs. rare.
1649Rainbow Funeral Serm. 29 May 30 She applyed her self vigorously to the setling of all things, which concerned the secular affairs of her Family, that so she might totally and wholly be vacanted to God. 1674[Z. Cawdrey] Catholicon 18 Which Sacredness they know may be presently vacanted by the Prevalency of a greater opposite Power. 1752Scotland's Glory 57 For getting Yule kept up Our highest courts vacanted. |