from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Vacancy \Va"can*cy\, n.; pl. {Vacancies}. [Cf. F. vacance.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence,
freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness;
listlessness.
[1913 Webster]
All dispositions to idleness or vacancy, even before
they are habits, are dangerous. --Sir H.
Wotton.
[1913 Webster]
2. That which is vacant. Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Empty space; vacuity; vacuum.
[1913 Webster]
How is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy? --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(b) An open or unoccupied space between bodies or things;
an interruption of continuity; chasm; gap; as, a
vacancy between buildings; a vacancy between sentences
or thoughts.
[1913 Webster]
(c) Unemployed time; interval of leisure; time of
intermission; vacation.
[1913 Webster]
Time lost partly in too oft idle vacancies given
both to schools and universities. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
No interim, not a minute's vacancy. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Those little vacancies from toil are sweet.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
(d) A place or post unfilled; an unoccupied office; as, a
vacancy in the senate, in a school, etc.
[1913 Webster]