Definition of "vicarious" []

• Felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another: read about mountain climbing and experienced vicarious thrills. (adjective)
• Endured or done by one person substituting for another: vicarious punishment. (adjective)
• Acting or serving in place of someone or something else; substituted. (adjective)
• Committed or entrusted to another, as powers or authority; delegated. (adjective)
• Physiology Occurring in or performed by a part of the body not normally associated with a certain function. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In fact, the term vicarious liability did not appear in the amended petition, and she charged all defendants, including Prime Holding, for the injuries."
• "I think if people are feeling sad or depressed or what we call vicarious traumatization, so that somebody else is traumatized and you vicariously experience the symptoms of post traumatic distress disorder, or acute stress disorder, then you need to talk to others for support, for counsel."
• "But we come now to a matter which, to most minds, will be more remote and more difficult; viz., to the fact, that God has not only a character ever lastingly perfected in right, but that, by the same law, he is held to a suffering goodness for his enemies, even to that particular work in time, which we call the vicarious sacrifice of Christ."