Crossword clues for vacant
vacant
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vacant \Va"cant\, a. [F., fr. L. vacans, -antis, p. pr. of vacare to be empty, to be free or unoccupied, to have leisure, also vocare; akin to vacuus empty, and probably to E. void. Cf. Evacuate, Void, a.]
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Deprived of contents; not filled; empty; as, a vacant room.
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form.
--Shak.Being of those virtues vacant.
--Shak.There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair.
--Longfellow. -
Unengaged with business or care; unemployed; unoccupied; disengaged; free; as, vacant hours.
Religion is the interest of all; but philosophy of those . . . at leisure, and vacant from the affairs of the world.
--Dr. H. More.There was not a minute of the day which he left vacant.
--Bp. Fell. -
Not filled or occupied by an incumbent, possessor, or officer; unoccupied; as, a vacant throne; a vacant house; a vacant apartment; a vacant parish.
Special dignities which vacant lie For thy best use and wearing.
--Shak. -
Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as, a vacant mind.
The duke had a pleasant and vacant face.
--Sir H. Wotton.When on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood.
--Wordsworth. -
(Law) Abandoned; having no heir, possessor, claimant, or occupier; as, a vacant estate.
--Bouvier.Vacant succession (Law), one that is claimed by no person, or where all the heirs are unknown, or where all the known heirs to it have renounced it.
--Burrill.Syn: Empty; void; devoid; free; unemployed; disengaged; unincumbered; uncrowded; idle.
Usage: Vacant, Empty. A thing is empty when there is nothing in it; as, an empty room, or an empty noddle. Vacant adds the idea of having been previously filled, or intended to be filled or occupied; as, a vacant seat at table; a vacant office; vacant hours. When we speak of a vacant look or a vacant mind, we imply the absence of the intelligence naturally to be expected there.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1300, "not filled, held, or occupied," from Old French vacant "idle, unoccupied" (of an office, etc.), from Latin vacantem (nominative vacans), "empty, unoccupied," present participle of vacare "to be empty" (see vain). Meaning "characterized by absence of mental occupation" is from 1570s. Related: Vacantly.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Not occupied; empty. 2 Showing no intelligence or interest.
WordNet
adj. void of thought or knowledge; "a vacant mind"
without an occupant or incumbent; "the throne is never vacant"
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "vacant".
Beside the cushion was a vacant throne, radiant as morning in the East, ablaze with devices in gold and gems, a seat to fill the meanest soul with sensations of majesty and tempt dervishes to the sitting posture.
Gradually, the French became more and more intransigent and this climaxed in 1292 when the papal throne became vacant and the French and Italian factions in the College of Cardinals cancelled each other out to the extent that they wrangled for two years without reaching agreement: no candidate achieved the required two-thirds majority.
The youth nodded a greeting and Ager returned the favor, noting there were plenty of vacant tables around.
The eyes were dark but vacant, and the face had no other expression than that look of apathetic melancholy which one sometimes sees on the faces of captive beasts.
Be it yours if it suffice you not to have already seized an archbishopric, six vacant sees, and many abbeys, to the peril of your soul, and turned to secular uses the alms of your fathers, of pious kings, the patrimony of Jesus Christ!
The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne.
Curio as tribune of the plebs, hurrying from Gaul, sent ahead and registered as a candidate for the vacant augurship of Quintus Hortensius.
But Brye, it seemed, had always liked obscure districts, and it was likely that he had an address book of unusual places that were vacant.
The list was now proclaimed to be full, and the gondolas were towed off, as before, towards the starting point, leaving the place beneath the stern of the Bucentaur, vacant.
Friday morning, as Dinny entered the rapidly filling classroom of Professor Grover, and looked about for a vacant chair, the long arm and beckoning fingers of Barney Vaughn summoned him to a seat in the back row, where he was received with friendly smiles.
The man on the stepladder should have been grateful as, apart from a few released secretaries and their lovers who paused for a moment on their way to a vacant patch of grass and then walked on, quite uninterested in the end of the world, Dunster and I were his only audience.
I trust Sir Francis Vere will appoint you to the first ensigncy vacant in his companies, but should there be likely to be any delay in this I will gladly give you a commission in one of my own regiments.
Hence, the feudal baron is invested with his fief by the suzerain, holds it from him, and to him it escheats when forfeited or vacant.
The resulting inburst of people and associated industries filled every vacant space and continued the sprawl farther.
Who has not welcomed, even as we, That jocund minstrel and his lays Beside the idle summer sea And in the vacant summer days?