SG Heritage Dictionary

Word of the Day: Catachrestical

Vacant [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Empty; not filled; void of every substance except air; as a vacant space between houses; vacant room.

2. Empty; exhausted of air; as a vacant receiver.

3. Free; unincumbered; unengaged with business or care.

4. Philosophy is the interest of those only who are vacant from the affairs of the world.

5. Not filled or occupied with an incumbent or possessor; as a vacant throne; a vacant parish.

6. Being unoccupied with business; as vacant hours; vacant moments.

7. Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as a vacant mind.

8. Indicating want of thought.

9. The duke had a pleasant and vacant face.

10. In law, abandoned; having no heir; as vacant effect or goods.

Vacant [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Deprived of contents; not filled; empty; as, a vacant room.

2. Unengaged with business or care; unemployed; unoccupied; disengaged; free; as, vacant hours.

3. Not filled or occupied by an incumbent, possessor, or officer; as, a vacant throne; a vacant parish.

4. Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as, a vacant mind.

5. Abandoned; having no heir, possessor, claimant, or occupier; as, a vacant estate.

Vacantly [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1913

In a vacant manner; inanely.

Unsubstantiality Roget’s Thesaurus §4

N. unsubstantiality, insubstantiality, nothingness, nihility, no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing, nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody, never a one, ne'er a one, no such thing, none in the world, nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth, not a particle, all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense, matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, john doe and richard roe, faggot voter, nominis umbra, nonentity, flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil, shadow, phantom, dream, ignis fatuus, "such stuff as dreams are made of", air, thin air, vapor, bubble, "baseless fabric of a vision", mockery, hollowness, blank, void, inanity, fool's paradise

V. vanish, evaporate, fade, dissolve, melt away, disappear

Adj. unsubstantial, baseless, groundless, ungrounded, without foundation, having no foundation, visionary, immaterial, spectral, dreamy, shadowy, ethereal, airy, cloud built, cloud formed, gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal, vacant, vacuous, empty, eviscerated, blank, hollow, nominal, null, inane

Phr. there's nothing in it, "an ocean of dreams without a sound", 3, formal existence internal conditions

Absence Roget’s Thesaurus §187

N. absence, inexistence, # nonresidence, absenteeism, nonattendance, alibi, emptiness, void, vacuum, vacuity, vacancy, tabula rasa, exemption, hiatus, lipotype|, truant, absentee, nobody, nobody present, nobody on earth, not a soul, ame qui vive

V. be absent, keep away, keep out of the way, play truant, absent oneself, stay away, keep aloof, hold aloof, withdraw, make oneself scarce, vacate, go away

Adj. absent, not present, away, nonresident, gone, from home, missing, lost, wanting, omitted, nowhere to be found, inexistence, empty, void, vacant, vacuous, untenanted, unoccupied, uninhabited, tenantless, barren, sterile, desert, deserted, devoid, uninhabitable

Adv. without, minus, nowhere, elsewhere, neither here nor there, in default of, sans, behind one's back

Phr. the bird has flown, non est inventus, "absence makes the heart grow fonder", "absent in body but present in spirit", absento nemo ne nocuisse velit, "achilles absent was achilles still", aux absents les os, briller par son absence, "conspicuous by his absence", "in the hope to meet shortly again and make our absence sweet"

Incogitancy Roget’s Thesaurus §452

N. # incogitancy, vacancy, inunderstanding, fatuity, thoughtlessness, vacuity, couch potato, vegetable

V. not think, not think of, dismiss from the mind, dismiss from the thoughts, indulge in reverie, put away thought, unbend the mind, relax the mind, divert the mind, veg out

Adj. vacant, unintellectual, unideal, unoccupied, unthinking, inconsiderate, thoughtless, mindless, no-brain, vacuous, absent, diverted, irrational, narrow-minded, unthought of, undreamt 'of, unconsidered, off one's mind, incogitable, not to be thought of

Phr. absence d'esprit, pabulum pictura pascit inani

Imbecility. Folly Roget’s Thesaurus §499

N. want of -intelligence, want of - intellect, shadowness, silliness, foolishness, imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let, stupidity, stolidity, hebetude, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness, incompetence, one's weak side, not one's strong point, bias, infatuation, simplicity, puerility, babyhood, dotage, anility, second childishness, fatuity, idiocy, idiotism, driveling, folly, frivolity, irrationality, trifling, ineptitude, nugacity, inconsistency, lip wisdom, conceit, sophistry, giddiness, eccentricity, extravagance, rashness, act of folly, b, be - imbecile, have no -brains, have no sense, trifle, drivel, radoter, dote, ramble, play the fool, play the monkey, monkey around, fool around, take leave of one's senses (insanity) 503, not see an inch beyond one's nose, stultify oneself, talk nonsense

Adj. unintelligent, unintellectual, unreasoning, mindless, witless, reasoningless, brainless, halfbaked, having no head, not -bright, inapprehensible, weak headed, addle headed, puzzle headed, blunder headed, muddle headed, muddy headed, pig headed, beetle headed, buffle headed, chuckle headed, mutton headed, maggoty headed, grossheaded, beef headed, fat witted, fat-headed, weak-minded, feeble-minded, dull minded, shallow minded, lack-brained, rattle-brained, rattle headed, half witted, lean witted, short witted, dull witted, blunt-witted, shallow-pated, clod-pated, addle- pated, dim-sighted, short-sighted, thick-skulled, weak in the upper story, shallow, borne, weak, wanting, soft, sappy, spoony, dull, dull as a beetle, stupid, heavy, insulse, obtuse, blunt, stolid, doltish, asinine, inapt, prosaic, hebetudinous, childish, child-like, infantine, infantile, babyish, babish, puerile, anile, simple, old-womanish, fatuous, idiotic, imbecile, driveling, blatant, babbling, vacant, sottish, bewildered, blockish, unteachable boeotian, boeotic, bovine, ungifted, undiscerning, unenlightened, unwise, unphilosophical, apish, simious, foolish, silly, senseless, irrational, insensate, nonsensical, inept, maudlin, narrow-minded, bigoted, giddy, rash, eccentric, foolish, unwise, injudicious, improper, unreasonable, without reason, ridiculous, absurd, idiotic, silly, stupid, asinine, ill-imagined, ill-advised, ill-judged, ill-devised, mal entendu, inconsistent, irrational, unphilosophical, extravagant, sleeveless, idle, pointless, useless, inexpedient, frivolous

Phr. davus sum non, "a fool's bolt is soon shot" clitellae bovi sunt impositae, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread", il n' a ni bouche ni eperon, "the bookful blockhead, ignorantly read", "to varnish nonsense with the charms of sound"

Unmeaningness Roget’s Thesaurus §517

N. meaninglessness, unmeaningness, scrabble, empty sound, dead letter, vox et praeterea nihil, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing", "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish, jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie, inanity, flap-doodle, rigmarole, rodomontade, truism, nugae canorae, twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug, poppy-cock, stuff, stuff and nonsense, bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle, absurdity, vagueness, boilerplate

V. mean nothing, be unmeaning, twaddle, quibble, scrabble

Adj. unmeaning, meaningless, senseless, nonsensical, void of sense, inexpressive, unexpressive, vacant, not significant, insignificant, trashy, washy, trumpery, trivial, fiddle-faddle, twaddling, quibbling, unmeant, not expressed, tacit, inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable

Insufficiency Roget’s Thesaurus §640

N. insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, "a beggarly account of empty boxes", indigence, insolvency

V. be insufficient, not suffice, come short of run dry, want, lack, need, require, caret, be in want, live from hand to mouth, render insufficient, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake

Adj. insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, "weighed in the balance and found wanting", perfunctory, deficient, wanting, &c. v, imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt

Adv. insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing

Phr. semper avarus eget