Vacancy \Va"can*cy\, n.; pl. Vacancies. [Cf. F. vacance.]

1. The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness.

All dispositions to idleness or vacancy, even before they are habits, are dangerous. --Sir H. Wotton.

2. That which is vacant. Specifically:
   (a) Empty space; vacuity; vacuum.

How is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy? --Shak.
   (b) An open or unoccupied space between bodies or things; an interruption of continuity; chasm; gap; as, a vacancy between buildings; a vacancy between sentences or thoughts.
   (c) Unemployed time; interval of leisure; time of intermission; vacation.

Time lost partly in too oft idle vacancies given both to schools and universities. --Milton.

No interim, not a minute's vacancy. --Shak.

Those little vacancies from toil are sweet. --Dryden.
   (d) A place or post unfilled; an unoccupied office; as, a vacancy in the senate, in a school, etc.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)