Hypertext Webster Gateway: "avocation"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

avocation
n : an auxiliary activity [syn: {by-line}, {hobby}, {sideline},
{spare-time activity}]


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