what does ''living vicariously through someone else'' mean? there`s more.?

Question

i`m learning english a 2nd language, and I`m really having troubles understandind the foregoing phrase so if anyone could tell me the exact meaning of it, i`d be more than grateful.
there is one more:
How do you use the word ``vicariously`` in a sentence having the equivalent meaning as the below one? :
``Martin did all the work on behaf of Drake.``

It`s not like i didn`t check it in a dictionary or sth,because i did but it was fruitless......and please give full explanations, terse definitions won`t suffice! thanks.

i`m learning english as a 2nd language, and I`m really having troubles understanding the foregoing phrase so if anyone could tell me the exact meaning of it, i`d be more than grateful.
there is one more:
How do you use the word ``vicariously`` in a sentence having the equivalent meaning as the below one? :
``Martin did all the work on behaf of Drake.``

It`s not like i didn`t check it in a dictionary or sth,because i did but it was fruitless......and please give full explanations, terse definitions won`t suffice! thanks.

Answer 1

Vicariously means that you're not experiencing it yourself, but using someone else's experience as your own. It's kind of like if you've never skied but you watch a movie about it you've experienced skiing vicariously through the movie.

In the sentence you gave, "Drake worked vicariously through Martin."

I hope that helps :)

Answer 2

Vicariously

Answer 3

Same as sympathetic vs. empathetic. Living vicariously means to fully experience and to be inspired by others and add those experiences to enhance what you wouldn t do, but appreciate what you would do. There is no "push" or shove one s life into that. We cannot be all. We can listen well and embrace and live vicariously through the moment so that we learn a bit more about what and who we are...you never know where those shoes have been walking. Others live vicariously through you, they don t have to act-out, that would be selfish. We all possess gifts of good/gifts of bad. The best balance of "vicarious" is that one realizes that no one, nobody has everything, so why push. For every"thing" you feel you don t have, you have something they don t either. Vicarious = empathetic, you can actually feel them, however, you don t walk in their shoes.

Answer 4

To live vicariously through someone else is to have them do whatever it is you want to do and then take satisfaction in it for yourself as if you were doing it.

For example, those mothers who enter their young daughters in beauty competitions because the mothers themselves wanted to be beauty queens, could be seen as living vicariously through their daughters. Their daughters are experiencing what the mother really wants to experience and the mother is gaining satisfaction from it.

The phrase 'live vicariously' usually means to experience pleasure from hearing or seeing other people do things that you yourself would like to do. A man asking about his friend's hot new girl friend and getting pleasure from hearing details of their love-life could also be said to be living vicariously through another.

However 'vicarious' really just means "performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another" so can also pertain to not-so-enjoyable things like work and punishment.

Answer 5

It means living an experience through someone else. For example, if someone says that they go to Jamaica all the time and I would love to go, but can't...I will say "Tell me about your trips so I can live vicariously through you". Meaning that you may not be able to go, but you could feel like it because someone has told you all about what it is like.

I think this should clarify it. I would hope so at least.

Answer 6

Vicarious is very similar to Substitute. Imagine you watch people ski, but you can't ski - then you get pleasure by imagining that you are skiing. Really someone else does it for you, and you live the experience vicariously (substituting yourself in your imagination - now you're skiing!)

Another example is if you wish you could punch your boss in the face, because he is a bad guy.... If someone else does it instead, you feel an empathy, similar excitement and pleasure in the deed. You are living the experience vicariously, because someone else did it but you imagine it was you.

I hope this helps.

Answer 7

The phrase "living vicariously through someone else" means to enjoy exciting experiences that you are unable to have yourself by listening to someone else describe their experiences to you. For example, say you are married and can't go out and party anymore, but you have a bachelor friend that goes out clubbing, meets women, and has crazy times. You can experience those things (live vicariously) second-hand by listening to your friend tell you all about his experiences that you can't have (but would like to).

Answer 8

All of these are fairly good answers but not great. I hope it's not arrogant of me to think I have a better answer, but I feel I do. One of the best examples of vicarious living isn't watching skiing on TV and feeling you have been skiing. Not going to happen. Nothing vested or invested there. BUT, parents quite often live vicariously through their children. There is a lot invested there. They want their kids to get what they never got. Not just because of wanting them to have a better life... They want to live THROUGH them. Dad always wishes he got on the football team and was a quarterback hero. So he is going to try and push his son that direction even though he doesn't like sports at all. Because if his son is winning games... Dad is going to relish it like he actually won the game. Vicarious kind of goes hand in hand with fantasy. You are not going to live vicariously through someone or something you don't care about at all. One picture = 1,000 words/Bruce Willis - Surrogates

Answer 9

to 'live vicariously through someone else' means that you are using their experiences as if they were your own. For example, Susan always wanted to have children, but she can't. Her sister has children, so she 'lives vicariously' through her sister, meaning she feels like a mother because she can put herself into her sister's situation as if she were really a mother. By living vicariously through her sister, Susan lives the life she wishes she could lead.

Bob never had the opportunity to go to college, but he always wanted to. He finds comfort in living vicariously through his son, who attends college. The father lives his life through his son, feeling as if it were he who is in college. His son lives the life he wishes he could have led through his son.

Answer 10

Our daughter is quite shy. Her mother was quite shy, but when we married (her second marriage), I took her to nudist camp and beaches (she like those). We did try and take daughter to the nude beaches, but she was not interested in going without her friends. So when Mom got two tattoos on her small chest, the daughter said 'That she was going to live vicariously thru her mother'.
It does not mean that she could have done that for herself if she wanted to.

Answer 11

This word is used most often in regard to a parent who pushes their child into something, sports or dancing or whatever, that they wish they had gotten to do when they were a child. So when the child hits a home run for example the parent is said to be living vicariously through their son.