vice1
[vahys]
- an immoral or evil habit or practice.
- immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior: a life of vice.
- sexual immorality, especially prostitution.
- a particular form of depravity.
- a fault, defect, or shortcoming: a minor vice in his literary style.
- a bad habit, as in a horse.
- (initial capital letter) a character in the English morality plays, a personification of general vice or of a particular vice, serving as the buffoon.
- Archaic. a physical defect, flaw, or infirmity: In most cases, attempts to relieve the symptoms will be of little avail without at the same time relieving or removing the constitutional vice which has induced this condition.
Show More
Origin of vice1
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin vitium a fault, defect, vice
Synonym study
1. Fault, failing, foible, weakness, vice imply shortcomings or imperfections in a person. Fault is the common word used to refer to any of the average shortcomings of a person; when it is used, condemnation is not necessarily implied: Of his many faults the greatest is vanity. Foible, failing, weakness all tend to excuse the person referred to. Of these foible is the mildest, suggesting a weak point that is slight and often amusing, manifesting itself in eccentricity rather than in wrongdoing: the foibles of artists. Weakness suggests that the person in question is unable to control a particular impulse, and gives way to self-indulgence: a weakness for pretty women. Failing is closely akin to fault, except that it is particularly applied to humanity at large, suggesting common, often venial, shortcomings: Procrastination and making excuses are common failings. Vice (which may also apply to a sin in itself, apart from a person: the vice of gambling ) is the strongest term, and designates a habit that is truly detrimental or evil.
vice2
[vahys]
- vise.
Show More
vice3
[vahy-see, -suh, vahys]
- instead of; in the place of.
Show More
Origin of vice3
1760–70; < Latin: instead of, ablative of vicis (genitive; not attested in nominative) interchange, alternation
vise
or vice
[vahys]
- any of various devices, usually having two jaws that may be brought together or separated by means of a screw, lever, or the like, used to hold an object firmly while work is being done on it.
Show More
- to hold, press, or squeeze with or as with a vise.
Show More
Origin of vise
1300–50; Middle English vis < Old French: screw < Latin vītis vine (whose spiral form gave later sense)
vice-
- a combining form meaning “deputy,” used in the formation of compound words, usually titles of officials who serve in the absence of the official denoted by the base word: viceroy; vice-chancellor.
Show More
Origin of vice-
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
indecencysensualitycarnalityperversionlusttrespasslewdnessoffenserotdecaydebaucherywickednessdepravitycorruptionimmoralitysqualorevilwronglicentiousnessdebasementExamples from the Web for vice
Contemporary Examples
With Vice, that was an example of you keeping yourself interested too, right?
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISISMarlow Stern
January 8, 2015
Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, summed up the Southern attitude in his 1861 Cornerstone Speech.
Vice President Joe Biden spoke, followed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, then Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton.
Wilson famously said “what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.”
In doing so, the vice president delighted the audience with a personal anecdote from his childhood as Joey Biden.
Historical Examples
Persuasive is the voice of Vice, That spreads the insidious snare.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
It seems to be the vice of those who have a long past behind them.
The New Adam and Eve (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")Nathaniel Hawthorne
Vice was like hysterics—the more kindness you showed the worse grew the patient!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
They are presented as good and evil, as vice and virtue, as villainy and heroism.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
As for work, the blacksmith reveled in it, and made it practically his only vice.
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
vice1
- an immoral, wicked, or evil habit, action, or trait
- habitual or frequent indulgence in pernicious, immoral, or degrading practices
- a specific form of pernicious conduct, esp prostitution or sexual perversion
- a failing or imperfection in character, conduct, etcsmoking is his only vice
- pathol obsolete any physical defect or imperfection
- a bad trick or disposition, as of horses, dogs, etc
Show More
Word Origin
C13: via Old French from Latin vitium a defect
vice2
often US vise
- an appliance for holding an object while work is done upon it, usually having a pair of jaws
Show More
- (tr) to grip (something) with or as if with a vice
Show More
Word Origin
C15: from Old French vis a screw, from Latin vītis vine, plant with spiralling tendrils (hence the later meaning)
vice3
- (prenominal)serving in the place of or as a deputy for
- (in combination)viceroy
Show More
- informal a person who serves as a deputy to another
Show More
Word Origin
C18: from Latin vice, from vicis interchange
vice4
- instead of; as a substitute for
Show More
Word Origin
C16: from Latin, ablative of vicis change
Vice
- (in English morality plays) a character personifying a particular vice or vice in general
Show More
vise
- US a variant spelling of vice 2
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for vice
n.1
"moral fault, wickedness," c.1300, from Old French vice, from Latin vitium "defect, offense, blemish, imperfection," in both physical and moral senses (cf. Italian vezzo "usage, entertainment").
Horace and Aristotle have already spoken to us about the virtues of their forefathers and the vices of their own times, and through the centuries, authors have talked the same way. If all this were true, we would be bears today. [Montesquieu]
Vice squad is attested from 1905. Vice anglais "corporal punishment," literally "the English vice," is attested from 1942, from French.
Show More
n.2
"tool for holding," see vise.
Show More
vice-
word-forming element meaning "instead of, in place of," 15c., from Latin vice "in place of," ablative of vicis "change, turn, office" (see vicarious). Sometimes borrowed in Old French form vis-, vi-.
Show More
vise
n.
c.1300, "device like a screw or winch for bending a crossbow or catapult," from Old French vis, viz "screw," from Latin vitis "vine, tendril of a vine," literally "that which winds," from root of viere "to bind, twist" (see withy). The meaning "clamping tool with two jaws closed by a screw" is first recorded c.1500.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper