vicariously

Thân thiện

She enjoyed her friend's wedding vicariously through the photos.

Definition

Adverb: 1. Experienced through the feelings or actions of another person: In a way that involves feeling or sharing in an experience by imagining or observing the experiences of another person, rather than by doing or feeling something directly oneself. 2. ​Done or suffered by one person as a substitute for another: In a way that involves acting or being acted upon on behalf of another.

Usage and Examples

• Experiencing through another:
  • As she couldn't travel, she lived vicariously through her daughter's adventure stories.
  • He enjoys the thrill of professional sports vicariously by watching games on television.
• Acting as a substitute (less common in everyday usage):
  • The manager was held vicariously liable for the employee's negligence. (Here, the liability is experienced indirectly through the actions of the employee.)

Advanced Usage

• Vicarious liability: A legal principle where one party (e.g., an employer) is held responsible for the wrongful acts of another (e.g., an employee), due to the relationship between them, even if the first party was not directly at fault.
• Vicarious experience: An experience gained not by direct participation but by sympathetic or imaginative participation in the experience of another.

Variants and Related Words

• Vicarious (adjective): The adjectival form.
  • She took vicarious pleasure in her friend's success.
• Vicariousness (noun): The state or quality of being vicarious.

Synonyms

• Indirectly
• Secondhand
• By proxy
• Sympathetically (in the context of shared feeling)

Antonyms

• Directly
• Personally
• Firsthand

Học thuật

Adverb

1. indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute
   • she enjoyed the wedding vicariously