English

Adjective

vicarious ‎(not comparable)

1. Experienced or gained by the loss or to the consequence of another person, rather than through first-hand experience, such as through watching or reading.

   People experience vicarious pleasures through watching television.

2. Done on behalf of others

   The concept of vicarious atonement, that one person can atone for the sins of another, is found in many religions.

Quotations

• 1886 — Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ch 10

  The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity.

• 1900 — James Frazer, The Golden Bough ch 26

  As time went on, the cruel custom was so far mitigated that a ram was accepted as a vicarious sacrifice in room of the royal victim.

• 1920 — H. Rider Haggard, The Blue Curtains ch III

  In these, however, he had not much time to indulge, for a footman, still decked in the trappings of vicarious grief, opened the door with the most startling promptitude, and he was ushered upstairs into a small but richly furnished room.

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

• vicar
• vicariously