vice
1- 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.
Origin of vice
1Synonym study
vice
2- vise.
vice
3- instead of; in the place of.
Origin of vice
3vise
or vice
- 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.
- to hold, press, or squeeze with or as with a vise.
Origin of vise
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.
Origin of vice-
Related Words for vice
indecency, sensuality, carnality, perversion, lust, trespass, lewdness, offense, rot, decay, debauchery, wickedness, depravity, corruption, immorality, squalor, evil, wrong, licentiousness, debasementExamples from the Web for vice
Contemporary Examples of vice
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 of vice
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
vice
1- 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
Word Origin for vice
vice
2often US vise
- an appliance for holding an object while work is done upon it, usually having a pair of jaws
- (tr) to grip (something) with or as if with a vice
Word Origin for vice
vice
3- (prenominal)serving in the place of or as a deputy for
- (in combination)viceroy
- informal a person who serves as a deputy to another
Word Origin for vice
vice
4- instead of; as a substitute for
Word Origin for vice
Vice
- (in English morality plays) a character personifying a particular vice or vice in general
vise
- US a variant spelling of vice 2
Word Origin and History for vice
"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.
"tool for holding," see vise.
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-.
vise
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.