vice

Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)

Adjective

  1. in place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank
    • vice president
    • vice admiral

Origin

From Latin vice (“in place of”), ablative form of vicis. Compare French fois (“time”) and Spanish vez (“time, turn”).

Derived

vice admiral vice governor vice mayor vice president vice-principal

Noun Commonwealth, alt of

  1. Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).
  2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
  3. A winding or spiral staircase.
  4. A grip or grasp.
    • Fang. If I but fiſt him once: if he come but within my Vice. - c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...

Origin

See vise.

Forms

vices

Noun Entry 3

  1. Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)
    • Pride is a vice, not a virtue.
    • Smoking was a vice Sally picked up in high school.
    • Shepard: I wear a lot of hats, Mr. Vargas. Some days I shut down criminals. Some days I defuse nukes. Some days I like to enjoy private vices. You understand me? - 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood...

    Synonyms: profligacy carrying-on Corinthianism knavery rakehood vice

    Antonyms: virtue

  2. Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
  3. Clipping of vice squad.
  4. A defect in the temper or behaviour of a horse, such as to make the animal dangerous, to injure its health, or to diminish its usefulness.
    • So a horse with say, navicular disease, making him suitable only for light hacking, would probably be unsound, whereas rearing would be a vice, being a "defect in the temper... making it dangerous". A vice can however...

Origin

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vice, from Old French vice, from Latin vitium (“fault or blemish”). Displaced native Old English unþēaw.

Forms

vices

Related

vicious vitiate vitiligo vituperate addiction habit racket racketeering sin tax

Derived

by vice of inherent vice sapphic vice secret vice solitary vice stable vice vice clause vice girl vice squad

Noun Entry 4

  1. One who acts in place of a superior.
    • c. 1850s-1870s, Edward Minister and Son, The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting-Room Companion The health of the Vice was proposed in appropriate language; in replying, Mr. Marriott thanked the company […]

Forms

vices

Preposition

  1. Instead of; in place of; versus.
    • He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
    • A very small cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History...

Verb

  1. Alternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”).
    • Camillo. As he had ſeen’t, or beene an Instrument / To vice you to't, that you haue toucht his Queene / Forbiddenly. - c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
    • What could be done—who was it that could do it—to check the storm-flight of these maniacal horses? Could I not seize the reins from the slumbering coachman? […] [F]rom the way in which the coachman's hand was viced...

Forms

vices vicing viced