vicarious
[vahy-kair-ee-uh s, vi-]
- performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another: vicarious punishment.
- taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute.
- felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others: a vicarious thrill.
- Physiology. noting or pertaining to a situation in which one organ performs part of the functions normally performed by another.
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Origin of vicarious
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for vicarious
Contemporary Examples
But the old city, site of the bull run, has the inevitable trappings of a theme park for aficionados of the vicarious kind.
David, I want to shake you and say, do not use our lives as vicarious proof for your consumer conservatism.
He reads biographies, he dreams of great men—a vicarious pleasure, presumably.
But the appeal of Harlequins is more than just vicarious sex.
You may feel dizzy from all the vicarious Scotch-drinking, too; the series is that visceral.
Historical Examples
I could, perhaps, wring a somber, vicarious joy from the things that might have been.
The Worlds of IfStanley Grauman Weinbaum
Thus she can have a vicarious career by virtue of what she has put into her husband's.
It is vicarious suffering; for they do not know what is perplexing us.
The Preacher and His ModelsJames Stalker
There they met all the vicarious members of the Pullman Club—the wives.
Skinner's Dress SuitHenry Irving Dodge
It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it.
The Call of the WildJack London
vicarious
- obtained or undergone at second hand through sympathetic participation in another's experiences
- suffered, undergone, or done as the substitute for anothervicarious punishment
- delegatedvicarious authority
- taking the place of another
- pathol (of menstrual bleeding) occurring at an abnormal siteSee endometriosis
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin vicārius substituted, from vicis interchange; see vice ³, vicissitude
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for vicarious
adj.
1630s, from Latin vicarius "substitute, deputy" (adj. and n.), from vicis "turn, change, exchange, substitution," from PIE root *weik-, *weig- "to bend, wind" (cf. Sanskrit visti "changing, changeable;" Old English wician "to give way, yield," wice "wych elm;" Old Norse vikja "to bend, turn;" Swedish viker "willow twig, wand;" German wechsel "change"). Related: Vicariously.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
vicarious
(vī-kâr′ē-əs, vĭ-)- Felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another.
- Occurring in or performed by a part of the body not normally associated with a certain function.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.