\Av`o*ca"tion\, n. [L. avocatio.]
1. A calling away; a diversion. [Obs. or Archaic]

         Impulses to duty, and powerful avocations from sin.
                                               --South.

2. That which calls one away from one's regular employment or
   vocation.

         Heaven is his vocation, and therefore he counts
         earthly employments avocations.       --Fuller.

         By the secular cares and avocations which accompany
         marriage the clergy have been furnished with skill
         in common life.                       --Atterbury.

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.

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

         There are professions, among the men, no more
         favorable to these studies than the common
         avocations of women.                  --Richardson.

         In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his
         standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations.
                                               --Macaulay.



   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.