Vicarious | Definition of vicarious by Merriam-Webster

Full Definition of VICARIOUS

1

a : serving instead of someone or something else

b : that has been delegated <vicarious authority>

2

: performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another : substitutionary <a vicarious sacrifice>

3

: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another <a vicarious thrill>

4

: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one <vicarious menstruation manifested by bleeding from the nose>

— vi·car·i·ous·ly adverb

— vi·car·i·ous·ness noun

See vicarious defined for English-language learners

See vicarious defined for kids

Examples of VICARIOUS

I am a vicarious eater, often preferring a description of a meal to eating it. I hoard the Wednesday food section of the New York Times, savoring it as my late-night reading, finishing always with the restaurant review. —Anne-Marie Slaughter, Commonweal, 14 June 2002
Most people caged in the humdrum routines of modern life are eager for vicarious glimpses of pain, joy, and especially vitality. —Robert Jackall et al., Image Makers, 2000
There is an immense sub-middle class with enough money to preserve it from rancorous envy of the rich, but not enough to preserve it from boredom; it needs vicarious compensations and manages to find them in the gossip columns. —Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree, 1937
To give himself the vicarious illusion of companionship, he fell back on letters. —Amy Lowell, John Keats, 1925
By means of ferocious jokes … he could vent his hatred of pioneer life and all its conditions, those conditions that were thwarting his creative life; he could, in this vicarious manner, appease the artist in him … —Van Wyck Brooks, The Ordeal of Mark Twain, 1920
[+]more [-]hide

Origin of VICARIOUS

Latin vicarius, from vicis change, alternation, stead — more at week

First Known Use: 1637

Rhymes with VICARIOUS

Aquarius, burglarious, calcareous, contrarious, denarius, gregarious, hilarious, malarious, nefarious, precarious, senarius, vagarious

Definition of VICARIOUS for Kids

: sharing in someone else's experiences through the use of imagination or sympathetic feelings <She got vicarious enjoyment from her sister's travels.>

— vi·car·i·ous·ly adverb

— vi·car·i·ous·ness noun

Medical Definition of VICARIOUS

: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one <bleeding from the gums sometimes occurs in the absence of the normal discharge from the uterus in vicarious menstruation>

Learn More About VICARIOUS

Spanish Central: Spanish translation of "vicarious"

Nglish: Translation of "vicarious" for Spanish speakers

Britannica English: Translation of "vicarious" for Arabic speakers

Browse

Next Word in the Dictionary: vicar of BrayPrevious Word in the Dictionary: vicariismAll Words Near: vicarious

Seen & Heard

What made you want to look up vicarious? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

View Seen & Heard Highlights from Around the Site