[vi.car.i.ous] adj [L vicarius, fr. vicis change, alternation, stead--more at week] (1637) 1 a: serving instead of someone or something else b: that has been delegated "~ authority"
2: performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another: substitutionary "a ~ sacrifice"
3: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another
4: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one "bleeding from the gums sometimes occurs in the absence of the normal discharge from the uterus in ~ menstruation" -- vi.car.i.ous.ly adv -- vi.car.i.ous.ness n