Vā'can-cy, n.
n. [Fr. vacance, Sp. & Pg. vacancia, It. vacanza.]
Sense 1. The quality of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness.
All dispositions to idleness or vacancy, even before they are habits, are dangerous. Wotton.
Sense 2. That which is vacant; as, (a.) Empty space; vacuity.
How is't That you do bend your eye on vacancy? Shak.
(b.) A space between bodies or things; chasm; gap; as, a vacancy between two beams or boards; a vacancy between buildings; a vacancy between words in writing or printing. (c.) Unemployed time; interval of leisure; time of intermission. “Time lost partly in too idle vacancies given both to schools and universities.” Milton.
No interim; not a minute's vacancy. Shak.
These little vacancies from toil are sweet. Dryden.
(d.) A place or post unfilled; an unoccupied office; as, a vacancy in the pulpit of a parish, in a public office, and the like.