av·o·ca·tion /ˌævəˈkeʃən/
 副業,嗜好


 Av·o·ca·tion n.
 1. A calling away; a diversion. [Obs. or Archaic]
    Impulses to duty, and powerful avocations from sin.   --South.
 2. That which calls one away from one's regular employment or vocation.
    Heaven is his vocation, and therefore he counts earthly employments avocations.   --Fuller.
    By the secular cares and avocations which accompany marriage the clergy have been furnished with skill in common life.   --Atterbury.
 Note: ☞ In this sense the word is applied to the smaller affairs of life, or occasional calls which summon a person to leave his ordinary or principal business. Avocation (in the singular) for vocation is usually avoided by good writers.
 3. pl. Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation.
    There are professions, among the men, no more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women.   --Richardson.
    In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations.   --Macaulay.
    An irregularity and instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture.   --Buckle.

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 avocation
      n : an auxiliary activity [syn: by-line, hobby, sideline,
          spare-time activity]