avocation, by-line, hobby, pursuit, sideline, spare-time activity
(noun) an auxiliary activity
Source: WordNet® 3.1
avocation (countable and uncountable, plural avocations)
(obsolete) A calling away; a diversion.
A hobby or recreational or leisure pursuit.
That which calls one away from one's regular employment or vocation.
Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation.
The calling of a case from an inferior to a superior court.
• (hobby): See also hobby
Source: Wiktionary
Av`o*ca"tion, n. Etym: [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.
Definition: 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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
30 April 2025
(noun) important marine food and game fishes found in all tropical and temperate seas; some are at least partially endothermic and can thrive in colder waters
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
