Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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. An irregularity and instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture. --Buckle.