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VACANCY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An empty area or space
Example:
without their support he'll be ruling in a vacuum
Synonyms:
emptiness; vacancy; vacuum; void
Classified under:
Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes
Hypernyms ("vacancy" is a kind of...):
space (an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things))
Derivation:
vacant (without an occupant or incumbent)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Being unoccupied
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("vacancy" is a kind of...):
emptiness (the state of containing nothing)
Derivation:
vacant (without an occupant or incumbent)
Context examples:
His eyes wandered in vacancy, for they had lost their charm and their delight—his Elizabeth, his more than daughter, whom he doted on with all that affection which a man feels, who in the decline of life, having few affections, clings more earnestly to those that remain.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He stretched his right hand (the left arm, the mutilated one, he kept hidden in his bosom); he seemed to wish by touch to gain an idea of what lay around him: he met but vacancy still; for the trees were some yards off where he stood.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
To keep senators in the interest of the crown, it was proposed that the members should raffle for employment; every man first taking an oath, and giving security, that he would vote for the court, whether he won or not; after which, the losers had, in their turn, the liberty of raffling upon the next vacancy.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The gentlemen came; and she thought he looked as if he would have answered her hopes; but, alas! the ladies had crowded round the table, where Miss Bennet was making tea, and Elizabeth pouring out the coffee, in so close a confederacy that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit of a chair.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
But when the descending foot missed the solid flooring and felt vacancy beneath, it was the old Wolf Larsen and the tiger muscles that made the falling body spring across the opening, even as it fell, so that he struck on his chest and stomach, with arms outstretched, on the floor of the opposite side.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Such were Elizabeth Elliot's sentiments and sensations; such the cares to alloy, the agitations to vary, the sameness and the elegance, the prosperity and the nothingness of her scene of life; such the feelings to give interest to a long, uneventful residence in one country circle, to fill the vacancies which there were no habits of utility abroad, no talents or accomplishments for home, to occupy.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Her plan for the morning thus settled, she sat quietly down to her book after breakfast, resolving to remain in the same place and the same employment till the clock struck one; and from habitude very little incommoded by the remarks and ejaculations of Mrs. Allen, whose vacancy of mind and incapacity for thinking were such, that as she never talked a great deal, so she could never be entirely silent; and, therefore, while she sat at her work, if she lost her needle or broke her thread, if she heard a carriage in the street, or saw a speck upon her gown, she must observe it aloud, whether there were anyone at leisure to answer her or not.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
‘Well,’ said he, showing me the advertisement, ‘you can see for yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address where you should apply for particulars.’
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Through several iterations of materials engineering, plus analyses performed in collaboration with scientists at the Gemological Institute of America, the team produced neutral silicon vacancies in diamonds.
(Key Tech for Quantum Communications Offered by Implanting Diamonds with Flaws, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Our residence at Canterbury, and our local connexion, will, no doubt, enable him to take advantage of any vacancy that may arise in the Cathedral corps.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
