vacuityn.
/vəˈkjuːᵻti/, /vaˈkjuːᵻti/, U.S. /væˈkjuədi/, /vəˈkjuədi/ I. Emptiness.† 6. Complete freedom or exemption from something. Obsolete.
1. in extended use.a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) I. 249 In the first vacuity, when thou wast nothing he sought thee so early as in Adam.1655 T. Fuller Hist. Univ. Cambr. ix. 169 in Church-hist. Brit. To prevent a vacuity (the detestation of nature) a new Plantation was soon substituted in their room.
a. Absolute emptiness of space; complete absence of matter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > [noun] > absolute emptiness of space
vaina1382
emptiness1533
empty1535
vacuity1546
vacuum1550
vacancy1603
voida1618
inanea1676
1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil Abridgem. Notable Worke i. ii. 4 b Epicurus..putteth two Causes Atomos or Motes and Vacuitie or emptinesse.
1597 T. Middleton Wisdome of Solomon Paraphr. i. sig. B For him..The Horizons and hemespheres obay, And windes the fillers of vacuitie.
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1955) II. 337 Water will clamber up hills, and ayre will sinke down into vaults, rather then admit Vacuity.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. iii. 20 Aristotle..hath demonstrated that there can be no motion in vacuity.
a1700 T. Ken Hymnotheo in Wks. (1721) III. 294 Some Dotards dream'd..That Atoms..Should rise from nothing in Vacuity.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) But mere Space, or Vacuity, is suppos'd to be extended; therefore it is material.
1829 Chapters Physical Sci. 231 A large portion of interspersed vacuity is sufficient for all purposes.
1851 G. Outram Legal Lyrics 17 She beats the taeds that live in stanes An' fatten in vacuity!
b. With a, no, etc. (Passing into sense 8.)
ΚΠ
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1021 There is no voidnesse or vacuity in nature.
1660 R. Coke Elements Power & Subjection 54 in Justice Vindicated So the laws of nature will admit of many things contrary to nature, rather then endure a vacuity.
1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 56 Natures abhorrence of a Vacuity.
2.
a. Emptiness consisting in the absence of solid or liquid matter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > emptiness > consisting in absence of solid or liquid matter
vacuity1579
1579 G. Baker tr. Guydon Quest. Chirurg. 12 Some [bones] are embossed for to enter, and other haue vacuity that receiueth.
1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs 156 The vacuity of the depleted veins doth attract the bloud beneath.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 10 This vacuity of the arteries upon death, was one of the objections urged very forcibly by the ancients against the circulation of the blood.
b. Absence of any of the visible objects usually occupying certain spaces; complete emptiness in respect of things or persons.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > absence of visible objects
vacuity1660
1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 268 Leading him to a dark deep well,..but terrified with the vacuity and darknesse, he retired.
1759 S. Johnson Prince of Abissinia I. xv. 102 The princess and her maid,..seeing nothing to bound their prospect, considered themselves as in danger of being lost in a dreary vacuity.
1775 S. Johnson in Boswell Life Johnson (1816) II. 424 Madam, I do not like to come down to vacuity.
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy II. vii. 141 Such sunbeams as forced their way through the narrow Gothic lattices..and..lost themselves in the vacuity of the vaults behind.
1842 H. Rogers Introd. Burke's Wks. 67 The grim spectres..who stalk from desolation to desolation, through the dreary vacuity..of chill and comfortless chambers.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles III. lvii. 249 As he gazed a moving spot intruded on the white vacuity of its perspective.
c. The fact of being unfilled or unoccupied.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun]
voidnessc1400
vacuity1664
vacancy1788
1664 J. Evelyn Sylva 41 But 'tis cheaper to supply the vacuity of such accidental decays by a new plantation.
1844 E. B. Barrett Drama of Exile 168 in Poems I To fill the vacant thrones of me and mine, Which affront Heaven with their vacuity.
3.
a. The quality or fact of being empty, in various figurative senses.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > worthlessness
ames-ace?a1300
noughtinessa1500
unworthness1587
worthlessness1604
vacuity1613
idlenessa1650
nothingness1652
unvaluableness1665
jackstraw1828
valuelessness1830
trashiness1857
dead-beatism1869
1613 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. (rev. ed.) ii. xii. 247 To make them feele the emptinesse, vacuitie, and no worth of man.
1640 E. Reynolds Treat. Passions xvi. 169 The most generall [cause of desire]..is a Vacuity, Indigence, and selfe-insufficiency of the Soule.
1690 C. Ness Compl. Hist. & Myst. Old & New Test. I. 289 They have the most light to discover to themselves their own vacuity and nothingness.
1806 A. Knox Remains I. 21 It would follow that..the great central appetite of intellectual man..was abandoned to the self-torture of irremediable vacuity.
1850 T. Carlyle Latter-day Pamphlets vi. 30 Here is an abyss of vacuity in our much-admired opulence.
1885 W. Pater Marius the Epicurean II. 144 It was an experience which came in the midst of a deep sense of vacuity in things.
b. Emptiness (in figurative senses) as a condition or state having a kind of real existence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun]
noughtOE
unbeing1435
non-beingc1443
nullity?1573
non esse1585
not-beinga1586
unexistence1593
nihilhood1602
non-essence?1605
inexistence1623
never-being1633
nonentity1643
non-existence1646
no-being1651
inexistency1660
nihility1678
cipherhooda1680
vacuitya1711
nothingness1766
nihilism1856
thinglessness1874
not-ness1933
nullness1949
a1711 T. Ken Christophil in Wks. (1721) I. 429 Thou all-sufficient art, and I Am nothing but vacuity.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 141. ⁋9 Think on the misery of him who is condemned to cultivate barrenness and ransack vacuity.
1776 S. Johnson Let. 30 Mar. (1992) II. 313 I know that a whole system of hopes, and designs, and expectations is swept away at once, and nothing left but bottomless vacuity.
1819 J. H. Wiffen Aonian Hours (1820) 25 The drear Vacuity of sorrow on thee lay.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes vi. 392 Having once parted with Reality, he tumbles helpless in Vacuity.
1869 P. Fitzgerald Fatal Zero I. iv. 36 In my lonely blue chamber, there is a sort of vacuity for thought, the world is shut out.
4.
a. Complete absence of ideas; vacancy of mind or thought.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > [noun]
unsensibleness?1555
headlesshood1579
senselessness1580
vacuity1593
incomprehension1605
insensibleness1610
unintelligiblenessa1631
insensateness1646
mindlessness1646
inapprehensiveness1652
unapprehensiveness1669
non-intelligencea1674
unperceivingnessa1688
inapprehension1745
inconception1761
brainlessness1832
vacancy1841
uncomprehension1862
the mind > mental capacity > thought > absence of thought > [noun]
vacuity1593
incogitancy1649
unthinkingnessa1695
incogitativity1722
vacancy1752
unthought1866
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > emptiness or insubstantiality
vacuity1593
inanity1603
slightnessa1616
outsideness1647
frothinessa1716
sleaziness1727
floatiness1839
thistledown1868
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. vi. 58 Men..are at the first without vnderstanding or knowledge at all. Neuerthelesse from this vtter vacuitie they growe by degrees.
1661 K. W. Confused Characters 14 Which will availe him little; but to be an indicium of his own vacuity, and emptiness of all sollidity.
1707 J. Floyer Physician's Pulse-watch 363 The Pulse,..if it be weak,..indicates Vacuity and Fear.
1773 H. More Search after Happiness ii Though more to folly than to guilt inclined, A drear vacuity possess'd my mind.
1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage I. xiv. 195 Imputing to fatigue of body what, in fact, was the consequence of mental vacuity, he proposed returning home.
1854 ‘M. Harland’ Alone xvii She heard and saw all that passed; but in place of heart and sense, was a dead vacuity.
1885 E. Clodd Myths & Dreams i. i. 9 We cannot so far lull our faculty of thought as to realise the mental vacuity of the savage.
b. Const. of (eye, mind, thought).
ΚΠ
1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy III. i. 7 That perplexed vacuity of eye which puzzled souls generally stare with.
1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 297 'Tis thus the understanding takes repose In indolent vacuity of thought.
1829 W. Cobbett Advice to Young Men v. §247 A great fondness for music is a mark of..great vacuity of mind.
1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters xx. 507 He frequents low dissolute haunts from no graver cause than idleness and vacuity of mind.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. iii. x. 183 We may be sure that the vacuity of thought in which most men live was for Saul a thing impossible.
5. Complete absence or lack of something.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > insufficiency > [noun] > deficiency, lack, or shortage
wanec888
trokingc1175
want?c1225
defaultc1300
trokea1325
fault1340
lacking1377
scarcityc1380
wantingc1390
absencea1398
bresta1400
defect?a1425
lack?c1425
defailing1502
mank?a1513
inlaik1562
defection1576
inlaiking1595
vacuity1601
deficience1605
lossa1616
failancea1627
deficiency1634
shortness1669
falling shorta1680
miss1689
wantage1756
shortage1868
the world > space > place > absence > [noun] > absence specifically of thing > complete
vacuity1601
solitude1605
1601 W. Cornwallis Ess. II. xlvi. sig. Ii2v Which vacuitie of vertue at that time will breede more terrour to him, then darknesse to children.
1642 D. Rogers Naaman 172 Christ is a sufficient store to a poore soule in the vacuity of other things.
1698 J. Cockburn Bourignianism Detected i. 7 She..was in an admirable vacuity of all Desire of knowing.
1782 F. Burney Cecilia II. iv. vi. 190 When he is quite tired of his existence, from a total vacuity of ideas, he must affect a look of absence.
1789 A. Young Jrnl. 22 June in Trav. France (1792) i. 118 There is as much character in his air and manner as there is vacuity of it in the countenance of..St. Etienne.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. III. 46 To contemplate the body and mind..at birth..as consisting equally of a blank or vacuity of impressions.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > moral or legal constraint > immunity or exemption from liability > [noun]
freedomeOE
freeshiplOE
exemptionc1380
immunityc1384
unpunishmentc1450
impunity1532
faculty1533
licence1551
vacuitya1620
a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) i. xii. §1. 122 The soule cannot haue in it, any true ioy,..vnlesse the same be founded, both in security, and in confidence, and in tranquility. All which do imply a vacuity from feare.
1653 R. Sanderson Serm. Newport 19 The evenness of the mind, and vacuity from those secret lashes..that haunt a guilty conscience.
a1665 J. Goodwin Πλήρωμα τὸ Πνευματικόv (1670) xviii. 483 A well-grounded Vacuity or freedom from all troublesome, distracting, and tormenting fears and cares.
7. † a. Leisure for some pursuit. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > [noun] > for doing something
toom1297
leisurec1400
respite1443
vacationc1450
vacuity1607
room1769
time off1881
1607 R. Parker Scholasticall Disc. against Antichrist i. iii. 137 From this preposterousnesse of the Crosse setting the sense before the spirite, come wee to his Vacuitie for his inwarde Devotion.
b. Lack of occupation; idleness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > idleness, lack of occupation or activity > [noun]
idlea1000
idlenessc1000
emptinessOE
idlelaikc1175
idleheada1325
idleship1357
otiosity1483
idlehoodc1540
idleteth1584
idleset1591
fallownessa1594
vacantry1598
vacancy1615
lurgy1769
inanity1782
inoccupation1783
vacuity1817
1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India I. ii. ix. 389 A whole race of men..whom the pain of vacuity forced upon some application of mind.
1875 ‘A. R. Hope’ My Schoolboy Friends 72 The hours of thoughtful vacuity I had spent.
II. An empty or open space.
8.
a. A hollow or enclosed space empty of matter; esp. a small internal cavity or interstice of this kind in a solid body.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > an unoccupied space
vacuity?1541
vacuum1589
blanka1616
gapa1616
vacancy1652
space1654
evacuity1655
void1697
chasm1759
lacuna1872
null1887
the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > hollowness > [noun] > a cavity or hollow
hollowc897
wombOE
holkc1000
dalkc1325
hollownessc1374
spaciosity?a1425
pitc1480
concavitya1513
doupa1522
capacity?1541
cavity?1541
concave?1541
vacuation?1541
vacuity?1541
sound1603
cave1605
ferme1612
ventriclea1631
core1663
want1664
uterus1692
excavation1781
hog trough1807
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Dijv Some [bones] are enbossed for to entre, and other haue vacuytees that receyueth.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 330 That so those places being emptied..the vacuety may be replenished with better blood.
1659 H. Hammond Paraphr. & Annot. Psalms (lxv. 10 Annot.) 321/2 The earth..sinks down and fills up the vacuities.
1682 N. Grew Exper. Solution Salts vii. ii. §2 in Anat. Plants 300 There are Vacuities in Water. That is to say, that all the parts of Water are not contiguous.
1731 G. Medley tr. P. Kolb Present State Cape Good-Hope II. 95 Those pieces become as hard as flints, and altogether as smooth and solid; not the least vacuity or interstice being to be seen.
1771 Philos. Trans. 1770 (Royal Soc.) 60 422 Every particle of light that issues from the sun, must leave a spherical vacuity of one millionth of one millionth of an inch diameter.
1800 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 90 235 A wad was placed over the powder, dry sand superadded, to fill all vacuities.
1840 Jrnl. Eng. Agric. Soc. 1 iii. 355 Water in descending seeks the nearest vacuity.
1872 J. D. Dana Corals & Coral Islands i. 38 The polyp has..no blood-vessels but the vacuities among the tissues.
b. A cosmic space empty of matter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > [noun] > absolute emptiness of space > an absolutely empty space > cosmic
voidnessc1400
vacuity1643
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §49 When this sensible world shall be destroyed, all shall then be here as it is now there, an Empyreall Heaven, a quasi vacuitie . View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 932 That seat soon failing, [he] meets A vast vacuitie . View more context for this quotation
1686 R. Boyle Free Enq. Notion Nature 75 Whilst their numberless Atoms wildly rov'd in their infinite Vacuity.
1795 W. Blake Bk. of Los iv The Deep fled away On all sides, and left an unform'd Dark Vacuity.
9.
a. An empty space left or contrived in something, esp. in some composite work or structure.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > an unoccupied space > left or contrived in something
vacuity1624
1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 26 To place the Columnes precisely one over another, that so the solid may answer to the solid, and the vacuities to the vacuities.
1655 T. Fuller Hist. Waltham-Abby 6 in Church-hist. Brit. The great pillars thereof are wreathed with indentings, which vacuities, if formerly filled up with Brasse..added much to the beauty of the building.
1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 55/2 The vacuities which are left between the back..of the Arch, and the upright of the Wall.
1775 S. Johnson Journey W. Islands 361 Round which there are narrow cavities, or recesses, formed by small vacuities, or by a double wall.
1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 425 Rooms are the interior vacuities or habitable parts of a building.
1845 Florist's Jrnl. 6 67 An ingeniously contrived trap for earwigs,..leaving a vacuity for the reception of the insects.
1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life 8 By a vacuity in the skull walls for the blood to pass out from the lateral sinus.
b. An open space, gap, or interval left between or among things. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > [noun] > intervening space
spacec1350
interspacec1420
interval1489
distance1559
intervacuuma1633
vacuity1658
intervale1683
1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus ii, in Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall 114 Whereby the Elephants passing the vacuities of the Hastati, might have run upon them.
a1797 E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. (rev. ed.) in Wks. (1812) V. 497 The Scots and Picts..rushed with redoubled violence into this vacuity.
1863 N. Hawthorne Our Old Home I. 218 That important portion of the town is a rather spacious and irregularly shaped vacuity.
c. An empty space due to the disappearance or absence of some special thing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > an unoccupied space > due to absence of specific thing
vacuity1822
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 723 He has also seen others..reproduce a smaller or larger number of teeth to supply vacuities progressively produced in earlier life.
1849 M. Somerville On Connexion Physical Sci. (ed. 8) xxxvii. 415 Those dark vacuities called ‘coal sacks’ by the ancient navigators, which are so numerous between α Centauri and α Antaris.
1867 G. F. Chambers Descr. Astron. vi. vi. 511 The central vacuity is not quite dark.
10. An emptiness, an empty space, a blank, in various figurative uses.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > absence > fact of being unoccupied > [noun] > an unoccupied space > in something immaterial
vacuitya1631
vacancy1759
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) VI. 335 A filling of all former vacuities, a supplying of all emptinesses in our soules.
1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 325 In this age, when men may say any thing if they have but Rhetorick to fill up the Vacuities.
a1679 W. Outram 20 Serm. (1682) 342 Our Saviour..filled up the vacuities that Moses had left in moral duties.
1733 A. Pope Ess. Man ii. 264 Each want of Happiness by Hope supply'd, And each Vacuity of Sense by Pride.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. ii. ii. 366 Whatever vacuities this excessive circulation occasioned in the necessary coin of the kingdom. View more context for this quotation
1841 R. W. Emerson Ess. 1st Ser. (Boston ed.) x. 253 But, yesterday, I saw a dreary vacuity in this direction in which now I see so much.
1850 C. Kingsley Alton Locke I. i. 10 Oh those sabbaths..when..there was nothing to fill up the long vacuity but books of which I did not understand a word.
11. An empty or inane thing.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > insubstantial
triflec1290
vainc1330
winda1382
vapour1382
gossamer?a1400
visevase1481
good morrow1542
cobweb1579
superficial1579
puff1583
bladder1589
blathery1591
froth1594
bag of winda1599
moth1600
nominala1625
tumour1630
windlestraw1637
vacuity1648
balloon1656
blank1678
breath bubble1835
nominality1842
fluff1906
cotton candy1931
1648 J. Beaumont Psyche xi. lvii. 188 That amongst all those huge Vacuities Which puffe the World up with their froathy Flood, Ev'n massie Gold must counted be.
1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 511 The Prince, by the Concessions of these Honorary Vacuities, redeeming the War from delay.
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present i. iv. 34 Thou for one wilt not again vote for any quack, do honour to any edge-gilt vacuity in man's shape.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1916; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.?1541- staff reporter
- staff ride
- staff rider
- staff sergeant
- staff shortage
- staff slinger
- staff surgeon
- staff system
- staff ticket
- staff torch
- staff training
- staff tree
- staff up
- staff vine
- staff walk
- staff wallah
- staff weapon
- staff writer
- staff-acre
- staff-beaded
- staff-bearer
- staff-bearing
- staff-drive
- staff-full
- staff-herd