Definition of "avocation"

But though she could neither sleep nor rest in her bed, yet, having no avocation from it, she was found there by her father at his return from Allworthy's, which was not till past ten o'clock in the morning.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […]

But yield who will to their separation,My object in living is to uniteMy avocation and my vocationAs my two eyes make one in sight.

1934, Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

Gardening is a wholesome avocation that encourages appreciation for nature and concern for the preservation and enhancement of our environment.

18 April, 1986, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5462

I have several things on the anvil, and near finished, that perhaps might be useful, if published: but the continual avocation by business, the impositions on me by impertinent visits, and the uneasiness of writing, which grows more intolerable to me every day, I doubt, will prevent my going any farther.

November 1, 1711, William King, Letter to Jonathan Swift

[W]hen his other more momentous Avocations of Pedantry and Pedagogiſm vvill give him an Interval from VVrath and Contention, he vvill ſet apart a Moment to conſider humane Nature Deviliz'd, and give us a Mathematical Anatomical Deſcription of it; […]

1726, [Daniel Defoe], “Of Satan’s Agents or Missionaries, and Their Actings upon and in the Minds of Men in His Name”, in The Political History of the Devil, as well Ancient as Modern: […], London: […] T. Warner, […], part II (Of the Modern History of the Devil), page 244

I have been received with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet temper, hospitality, consideration, and with unsurpassable respect for the privacy daily enforced upon me by the nature of my avocation here and the state of my health.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844