avocation

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.A calling away; a diversion. [Obs. or Archaic] [1913 Webster]

Impulses to duty, and powerful avocations from sin.— South.[1913 Webster]

2.That which calls one away from one's regular employment or vocation. [1913 Webster]

Heaven is his vocation, and therefore he counts earthly employments avocations.— Fuller.[1913 Webster]

By the secular cares and avocations which accompany marriage the clergy have been furnished with skill in common life.— Atterbury.[1913 Webster]

Note: In this sense the word is applied to the smaller affairs of life, or occasional calls which summon a person to leave his ordinary or principal business. Avocation (in the singular) for vocation is usually avoided by good writers. [1913 Webster]

3.pl. Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation. [1913 Webster]

There are professions, among the men, no more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women.— Richardson.[1913 Webster]

In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations.— Macaulay.[1913 Webster]

An irregularity and instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture.— Buckle.[1913 Webster]