vacancyn.

c1580 W. Spelman Dialoge (1896) 6 There I contynued my sute untill the tyme of ther vacantie in the Lawe.

1633 W. Robinson Let. in S. P. Rigaud & S. J. Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men 17th Cent. (1841) (modernized text) I. 18 He is to come this vacancy into Lincolnshire about business of his own.

1679 Tryals & Condemnation Jesuits 62 Joseph. He was [absent] in the time of the Vacancy... L.C.J. When are the Vacancies? Joseph. In August, my Lord.

1702 T. Marwood Diary in Publ. Catholic Rec. Soc. (1909) 7 134 To-day the Vacancys of the lower Classe began, and end at S^t Luke.

1703 in A. I. Ritchie Churches St. Baldred (1880) 128 He must not grant the vacancie without acquainting the session.

1780 E. Stiles Lit. Diary (1901) II. 409 At the End of the Vacancy 1744 Mr. Reed carried his 3 pupils..to enter into Harv[ard] College.

1876 J. Grant Hist. Burgh Schools Scotl. ii. v. 182 Besides the half and occasional holiday two annual ‘plays’, or ‘vacancies’, have of old been granted to the scholar.

1876 A. J. C. Hare Jrnl. 29 Aug. in Story of my Life (1900) VI. xviii. 412 They are having their vacancies.

1643 in Fasti Aberd. (1854) 421 The porter..shall attend the colledge for saving the fabrick, both in tyme of play and vacancie.

1691 A. Gavin Observ. Journy to Naples 15 Every year in Autumn they have two Months of vacancy.

1599 Master Broughtons Lett. Answered vii. 21 His assiduous reading in any vacancie from busines.

1602 W. Segar Honor Mil. & Civill iv. xxi. 237 For he that hath bene longest vacant, may take place before him that is lesse ancient in vacancie.

1645 J. Milton Poems 28 (title) On the University Carrier who sickn'd in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reason of the Plague.

1663 S. Patrick Parable of Pilgrim (1668) xxix. 337 He did not find so much vacancy as his heart desired for private Prayer.

1775 S. Johnson Let. 29 July (1992) II. 257 Air, and Vacancy, and novelty..would..afford all the relief that human art can give.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) i. iv. 26 If he fill'd His vacancie with his Voluptuousnesse. View more context for this quotation

a1628 J. Preston Breast-plate of Faith (1631) 114 So occupied with outward things abroad, that they have no vacancie to feed their souls within.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia To Rdr. This Work..has taken me up the vacancy of above Twenty years.

1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 305 Daies of nothing, but Riots, visits..and such like Exiles from themselves, and vacancies from the businesse of life.

1676 M. Hale Contempl. Moral & Divine 21 An industrious Husband-man, Trades-man, Scholar, will never want business for occasional vacancies and horæ subcisivæ.

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. xix. 354 There are none so enslaved to the Necessity of Life, who might not find many Vacancies, that might be husbanded to this Advantage of their Knowledge.

1748 in Welsh Rev. Feb. (1892) 350 Filled in y^e vacancies of y^e day with work.

1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey i. 64 Chesse,..a sport that agreeth well with their sedentary vacancie.

1651 T. Hobbes Philos. Rudim. xii. §10. 184 They who are least troubled with caring for necessary things..are invited by their vacancy sometimes to disputation among themselves concerning the Common-weal.

1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon Pref. Having about three Years since, and in the Vacancy of a Country Life, taken this Volume in hand.

1802 W. Heberden, Jr. tr. W. Heberden Comm. Hist. & Cure Dis. xiii. 78 Nor does the vacancy of a Bath life suit complaints.

1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV vi. 6 Such is the refuge of our youth and age, The first from Hope, the last from Vacancy.

a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1836) I. 200 The source of the common fondness for novels of this sort rests in that dislike of vacancy and that love of sloth..inherent in the human mind.

1615 T. Jackson Iustifying Faith iii. Pref. sig. A 3^v God..blesse me outwardly with that measure of health, of vacancy from other businesse [etc.].

1631 R. Byfield Doctr. Sabbath Vindicated 143 A precise vacancy from all worke..is morall.

1690 J. Norris Christian Blessedness 80 Implying, that a vacancy from Wrath is a necessary Qualification for Prayer.

1712 Spectator No. 408. ⁋8 An absolute Indifference and Vacancy from all Passion.

1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 204. ⁋13 Nor was he able to disengage his attention, or mingle with vacancy and ease in any amusement.

1796 F. Burney Camilla V. x. iii. 293 Her pliant mind, in this state of vacancy, had readily been bent to the new pursuit.

1856 W. E. Aytoun Bothwell ii. i The fishers..whistle o'er their lazy task In happy vacancy.

1754 J. Edwards Careful Enq. Freedom of Will ii. vii. 64 The Will's Freedom consists in..this Vacancy and Opportunity that is left for the Will it self to be the Determiner of the Act.

1607 Statutes in M. H. Peacock Hist. Free Gram. School Wakefield (1892) 59 Within foure daies of the vacancie knowen.

1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 197 They began a new Custom, which was, That they would in Vacancies, name the Captains, and other inferiour Officers under their Pay.

1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. ii. 172 No candidate shall, after the date..of the writs, or after the vacancy, give any money or entertainment to his electors.

1804 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. III. 40 A sale of an advowson, the church being actually void, was simoniacal and void in respect to the then present vacancy.

1896 Law Times Rep. 100 408/1 With reference to the vacancy among the Chancery taxing masters.

1610 G. Carleton Iurisdict. 2 That power whereby we succeed the Emperour in the vacancie of the Empire.

1659 H. L'Estrange Alliance Divine Offices 321 As did the Clergy of Rome also in the vaca [n] cy of that Sea determine.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 77 (note) Zornesan Mustapha Basha made Keeper of the Seal during the vacancy of the Charge of Grand Visier.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 129 In the Vacancy of a Bishoprick, the Guardian of the Spiritualities was summon'd to Parliament in the Bishop's Room.

1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. 152 The vacancy of the throne was precedent to their meeting without any royal summons.

1809 Christian in Blackstone's Comm. II. 9 It cannot be said that in such a case there is ever a vacancy of possession.

a1832 A. Polson Eng. Law in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 827/1 The maxim..that the tenancy of the land should always be filled, and that the tenant could make no disposition of his interest likely to involve a vacancy in the same tenancy.

1693 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) III. 81 Mounsieur Catinat..has sent 250 officers to throw themselves into the towne to supply the vacancies of those that were sick and dead there.

1707 E. Ward Wooden World Dissected 21 He shall force a Rupture with some one of his Lieutenants, to make a Vacancy for him.

1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. iii. 28 His military cares have never extended beyond the disposal of vacancies.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. x. 638 How could there be an election without a vacancy?

1858 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) IV. 286 More than twenty vacancies in the order of the Golden Fleece were placed by him at Henry's disposal.

1867 J. Macfarlane Mem. T. Archer I. 17 The ‘vacancies’ sought after him.

1953 ‘R. Macdonald’ Gone Girl in Lew Archer, Private Investigator (1977) 24 The first motel I came to..was decorated with a vacancy sign.

1970 R. H. Greenan Nightmare in Colour iv. 15 The place..is a bit sleazy... There's a vacancy sign out.

1972 Guardian 17 May 12/3 Hotels are replacing the ‘Vacancy’ signs with hoardings saying ‘For Sale’.

1973 Value Added Tax Tribunals Rep. I. 165 Students have at their choice, provided vacancies are available, three types of accommodation.

1982 M. Babson Death beside Seaside xiii. 111 Most of the trippers will be leaving this afternoon. There'll be plenty of vacancies.

1652 M. Nedham tr. J. Selden Of Dominion of Sea 18 In the case of those who first inhabited Vacancies; or who became possess't by right of War and Conquest.

1670 W. Perwich Despatches (1903) 90 As soon as ever he passed the great vacancy, he went to see the Cittadell.

1690 W. Leybourn Cursus mathematicus f. 901 In measuring of Roofing, seldom any deductions are made for..the Vacancies for Lutheren Lights, and Sky-Lights.

1726 R. Bradley Country Gentleman & Farmer's Monthly Director 3 In places where there are Vacancies in Hedges, set Truncheons, or Twigs of the White Sallow.

1744 M. Bishop Life Matthew Bishop 209 It [i.e. gun-fire] soon broke us in a terrible manner, though our Vacancies were quickly filled up.

1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea 20 Their saddles have in the middle a vacancy, which must make it easy for the horse.

1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions I. 55 Small vacancies in the ice would not prevent the journey.

1858 N. Hawthorne French & Ital. Note-bks. (1872) I. 20 This great arch..with the lofty vacancy beneath it.

1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 Jan. 1/3 The closing of the fontanelle, or the ‘vacancy’ in the infant cranium.

1759 S. Johnson Prince of Abissinia I. i. 5 Every one..in the valley was required to propose whatever might contribute..to fill up the vacancies of attention, and lessen the tediousness of time.

1826 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. (ed. 2) I. i. 7 Visions of reluctant homage from crowned heads..have passed away from me, and leave no vacancy.

1856 P. E. Dove Logic Christian Faith v. ii. 317 Without revelation there would be a distinct vacancy in the scheme of knowledge.

1951 Physical Rev. 82 551/1 The experiments described below seem to be the most direct evidence, to date, that diffusion in close-packed metals occurs, predominantly, through the movement of vacancies.

1958 E. U. Condon & H. Odishaw Handbk. Physics viii. iii. 48/2 In a crystal containing a divalent cation impurity,..there will be a temperature below which the number of Schottky cation vacancies will be smaller than the number of additional free cation vacancies.

1967 A. H. Cottrell Introd. Metall. xx. 365 The quench..produces a supersaturated solution of vacancies and..these vacancies agglomerate to form dislocation rings or other defects which harden the metal by acting as obstacles to gliding dislocations.

1971 New Scientist 25 Mar. 664/2 The interstitial migrates by jumping from one site to another, while the vacancy migrates as a result of a neighbouring atom jumping into the vacant hole.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia V. 334/1 Theoretical considerations require that all crystals have vacancies except at absolute zero temperature.

1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall IV. xlv. 453 He contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city.

1796 F. Burney Camilla I. ii. iv. 214 Such is the vacancy of dissipated pleasure, that..an opening always remains for something yet to be tried.

1816 J. Scott Paris Revisited iv. 52 The dullest country town in England can afford no idea of the stillness and vacancy of the several noble looking cities.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward II. ix. 194 Quentin felt a strange vacancy and chillness of the heart.

1878 B. Stewart & P. G. Tait Unseen Universe i. §12. 31 When David or Hezekiah shrank from the gloomy vacancy of the grave.

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge v. 262 Where in his face there was wildness and vacancy, in hers there was..patient composure.

1866 All Year Round Extra Christmas No.,10 Dec. 19/1 He is a smiling piece of vacancy.