Both Uses of
vacuous
in
Arrowsmith
- In the study of the profession to which he had looked forward all his life he found irritation and vacuity as well as...
Chpt 2 *vacuity = lack of intelligent thought
- Once or twice he tried to sit and look impressive in the office of the Director, but fled from that large clean vacuity and from Miss Robbins's snapping typewriter to his own den that smelled not of forward-looking virtue but only of cigarettes and old papers.†
Chpt 30
Definitions:
-
(1)
(vacuous) lacking intelligent thought
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In addition to usage such as "vacuous comments" that indicate a lack of intelligent thought; vacuous can also indicate a lack of attention as in "a vacuous stare", or an absence of meaning as in "a vacuous life".
More rarely, and especially in older usage, vacuous may refer to physical emptiness -- such as "a vacuous warehouse".