Meaning & use
living vicariously through someone
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phrase
Getting satisfaction from someone else's experiences instead of having your own.
Grammar: Used after a form of 'be': 'They are living vicariously through their daughter.' The object can be a person or a group.
Patterns
- be living vicariously through someone
- live vicariously through someone
After his injury, he was living vicariously through his teammates.
Some parents are living vicariously through their children's successes.
She is living vicariously through her friends who travel the world.
Common combinations
- live vicariously through someone
- He lives vicariously through his brother's adventures.
- be accused of living vicariously
- The director was accused of living vicariously through his actors.
- living vicariously through someone's success
- She is living vicariously through her son's success.
Synonyms and how they differ
- living in someone's shadow
- This means being less successful than someone close to you, not sharing their experiences.
- secondhand
- This describes experiences you get from others rather than doing them yourself, and is an adjective, not a verb phrase.
Opposites
Word family
- vicarious adjective
- experienced by watching someone else rather than by doing it yourself
- vicariously adverb
- in a way that involves watching or hearing about others' experiences
Commonly confused: living vicariously through someone or living through something?
living vicariously through someone vs living through something
This means surviving a difficult event, such as a war. 'Living vicariously through someone' is about sharing someone's life, not surviving.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
The fixed preposition is 'through', and the adverb 'vicariously' is needed. Option 1 uses 'by', option 2 uses 'on', and option 3 uses the adjective 'vicarious' instead of the adverb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “living vicariously through someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.