Vice definition |Dictionary.com

Browse Nearby Entries

vicars

vice

Sponsored Links Buy Tool Workholding
Shop For Industrial Tools, Hardware and Supplies. Next Day Delivery!
metalworking.mscdirect.com

Vice
Huge Selection of Metal, Shop, Pipe Milling & Drill and Wood Vises
www.Southern-Tool.com/

Vice
Vice Online. Shop Target.com.
www.Target.com

17 dictionary results for: Vice

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

vice1

[vahys] Pronunciation Key,

–noun

1.	an immoral or evil habit or practice.

2.	immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior: a life of vice.

3.	sexual immorality, esp. prostitution.

4.	a particular form of depravity.

5.	a fault, defect, or shortcoming: a minor vice in his literary style.

6.	a physical defect, flaw, or infirmity: a constitutional vice.

7.	a bad habit, as in a horse.

8.	(initial capital letter) a character in the English morality plays, a personification of general vice or of a particular vice, serving as the buffoon.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME < AF, OF < L vitium a fault, defect, vice

]

—Synonyms 1. See fault. 2. depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, corruption. 5. blemish.

—Antonyms 1, 2. virtue.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Sponsored Links Buy Tool Workholding
Shop For Industrial Tools, Hardware and Supplies. Next Day Delivery!
metalworking.mscdirect.com

Vice
Huge Selection of Metal, Shop, Pipe Milling & Drill and Wood Vises
www.Southern-Tool.com/

Vice
Vice Online. Shop Target.com.
www.Target.com

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

vice2

[vahys] Pronunciation Key,

–noun, verb (used with object), viced, vic·ing.

vise.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

vi·ce3

[vahy-see, -suh, vahys] Pronunciation Key

–preposition

instead of; in the place of.

[Origin: 1760–70; < L: instead of, abl. of vicis (gen.; not attested in nom.) interchange, alternation

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vice¹ (vīs) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. An evil, degrading, or immoral practice or habit.
2. A serious moral failing.
3. Wicked or evil conduct or habits; corruption.
4. A slight personal failing; a foible: the vice of untidiness.
5. A flaw or imperfection; a defect.
6. Vice A character representing generalized or particular vice in English morality plays.
7. A jester or buffoon.
Sexual immorality, especially prostitution.
1. A slight personal failing; a foible: the vice of untidiness.
2. A flaw or imperfection; a defect.
3. Vice A character representing generalized or particular vice in English morality plays.
4. A jester or buffoon.
A physical defect or weakness.
An undesirable habit, such as crib-biting, in a domestic animal.
1. Vice A character representing generalized or particular vice in English morality plays.
2. A jester or buffoon.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vitium.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vice² (vīs) Pronunciation Key
n. & v.
Variant of vise.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vi·ce³ (vī'sē, -sə) Pronunciation Key
prep. In place of; replacing.

[Latin ablative of *vix, change; see vice-.]

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vise also vice   (vīs) Pronunciation Key
n.   A clamping device, usually consisting of two jaws closed or opened by a screw or lever, used in carpentry or metalworking to hold a piece in position.

tr.v.   vised also viced, vis·ing also vic·ing, vis·es also vic·es
To hold or compress in or as if in a vise.

[Middle English vis, screwlike device, from Old French, screw, from Latin vītis, vine (from its spiral wrappings); see wei- in Indo-European roots.]

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
vice (1)

"moral fault, wickedness," 1297, from O.Fr. vice, from L. vitium "defect, offense, blemish, imperfection," in both physical and moral senses (cf. It. 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.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
vice (2)

"tool for holding," see vise.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

vice
noun
1.	moral weakness [syn: frailty]
2.	a specific form of evildoing; "vice offends the moral standards of the community"

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: vice
Pronunciation: 'vIs
Function: noun
1 : a moral fault or failing
2 : DEFECT
3 : immoral activity (as prostitution)

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: vice
Pronunciation: 'vIs, 'vI-sE
Function: preposition
Etymology: Latin, ablative of vic- place, turn
: in the place of vice the absent chairman>; also : rather than

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vice

Vice\, n. [F., from L. vitium.]

1. A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse.

Withouten vice of syllable or letter. --Chaucer.

Mark the vice of the procedure. --Sir W. Hamilton.

2. A moral fault or failing; especially, immoral conduct or habit, as in the indulgence of degrading appetites; customary deviation in a single respect, or in general, from a right standard, implying a defect of natural character, or the result of training and habits; a harmful custom; immorality; depravity; wickedness; as, a life of vice; the vice of intemperance.

I do confess the vices of my blood. --Shak.

Ungoverned appetite . . . a brutish vice. --Milton.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station. --Addison.

3. The buffoon of the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice, sometimes of another, or of Vice itself; -- called also Iniquity.

Note: This character was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, and was armed with a dagger of lath: one of his chief employments was to make sport with the Devil, leaping on his back, and belaboring him with the dagger of lath till he made him roar. The Devil, however, always carried him off in the end. --Nares.

How like you the Vice in the play? . . . I would not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at everybody. --B. Jonson.

Syn: Crime; sin; iniquity; fault. See Crime.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vice

Vice\, n. [See Vise.]

1. (Mech.) A kind of instrument for holding work, as in filing. Same as Vise.

2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements. [Written also vise.]

3. A gripe or grasp. [Obs.] --Shak.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vice

Vice\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Viced; p. pr. & vb. n. Vicing.] To hold or squeeze with a vice, or as if with a vice. --Shak.

The coachman's hand was viced between his upper and lower thigh. --De Quincey.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vice

Vi"ce\, prep. [L., abl. of vicis change, turn. See Vicarious.] In the place of; in the stead; as, A. B. was appointed postmaster vice C. D. resigned.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Vice

Vice\, a. [Cf. F. vice-. See Vice, prep.] Denoting one who in certain cases may assume the office or duties of a superior; designating an officer or an office that is second in rank or authority; as, vice president; vice agent; vice consul, etc.

Vice admiral. [Cf. F. vice-amiral.] (a) An officer holding rank next below an admiral. By the existing laws, the rank of admiral and vice admiral in the United States Navy will cease at the death of the present incumbents. (b) A civil officer, in Great Britain, appointed by the lords commissioners of the admiralty for exercising admiralty jurisdiction within their respective districts.

Vice admiralty, the office of a vice admiral.

Vice-admiralty court, a court with admiralty jurisdiction, established by authority of Parliament in British possessions beyond the seas. --Abbott.

Vice chamberlain, an officer in court next in rank to the lord chamberlain. [Eng.]

Vice chancellor. (a) (Law) An officer next in rank to a chancellor. (b) An officer in a university, chosen to perform certain duties, as the conferring of degrees, in the absence of the chancellor. (c) (R. C. Ch.) The cardinal at the head of the Roman Chancery.

Vice consul [cf. F. vice-consul], a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consul.

Vice king, one who acts in the place of a king; a viceroy.

Vice legate [cf. F. vice-l['e]gat], a legate second in rank to, or acting in place of, another legate.

Vice presidency, the office of vice president.

Vice president [cf. F. vice-pr['e]sident], an officer next in rank below a president.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT