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.

Additional Details

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

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

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

you wouldnt use that word in that sentence

Answer 3

Say I went on vacation to an exotic place and you stayed home. When I came back I told you every detail to such an extent that you could almost feel how I felt.

"He enjoyed his friend's vacation vicariously through his friend's detailed description".

Answer 4

That sentence does not describe living vicariously through someone else. First, living vicariously means to do something that you would normally wouldn't. So to live vicariously through someone else is to wish you were doing what they were doing, for example, one friend is wild and goes sky diving all the time. The other friend says to him, "I wish I had the guts to do that, but I can just live vicariously through you when you go. Tell me all about it."

Does that help?

Answer 5

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 6

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.

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

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 9

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 10

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.