Vice definition

vīs
Any trivial fault or failing, act of self-indulgence, etc.
noun
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1
(law) Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, or drugs.
noun
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0
A defect or flaw, as in a work of art.
noun
3
3
The definition of a vice is a weakness in morality or bad habit.

An example of vice is someone having a gambling problem.

noun
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Prostitution, the sale of illegal drugs, and certain other forms of usually nonviolent criminal behavior.
noun
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A practice or habit considered to be evil, degrading, or immoral.

The vices of smoking and drinking.

noun
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Wicked or depraved conduct or habits; corruption.
noun
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A slight personal failing; a foible.

The vice of untidiness.

noun
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A flaw or imperfection; a defect.
noun
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A character representing generalized or particular vice in English morality plays.
noun
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A jester or buffoon.
noun
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An evil or wicked action, habit, or characteristic.
noun
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Evil or wicked conduct or behavior; depravity or corruption.
noun
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Prostitution.
noun
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In old English morality plays, a character, often a buffoon, representing a vice or vice in general.
noun
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noun
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One who acts in the place of; subordinate; deputy.

Vice-chairman, viceregal.

affix
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A bad habit.

Smoking is a vice, not a virtue.

noun
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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.
noun
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A mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping or holding (also spelled vise).
noun
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A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
noun
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To hold or squeeze with a vice, or as if with a vice.

verb
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In place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank.

Vice president.

Vice admiral.

adjective
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Instead of, in place of.

A. B. was appointed postmaster vice C. D. resigned.

preposition
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Someone who takes the place of someone else; a deputy.
prefix
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In the place of; as the deputy or successor of.
preposition
2
3
In place of; replacing.

Ms. Fine acted as treasurer, vice Mr. Smith.

preposition
0
1
Any physical or functional defect or imperfection of the body.
noun
0
1
A bad or harmful trick or habit, as of a horse or dog.
noun
0
1
One who acts in the place of another; deputy.

Vice-chairman.

prefix
0
3
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
vice
Plural:
vices

Origin of vice

  • < L vice, in the place of another, abl. of *vix: see vicar

    From Webster's New World College Dictionary, 5th Edition

  • Middle English from Old French vis-, vice- from Late Latin vice- from Latin vice ablative of *vix change weik-2 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English from Old French from Latin vitium

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Latin ablative of vix change vice–

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From French vis (“screw, winding stairs"), from Old French vis, viz, from Latin vitis (“vine"); akin to English withy.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Anglo-Norman, from Old French, from Latin vitium (“fault or blemish").

    From Wiktionary

  • From Latin vice (“in place of"), ablative form of vicis.

    From Wiktionary

Vice Sentence Examples

  • Vice and disease, which cast such a sombre moral hue over the world, seemed to have hardly any existence for him.

  • The Venetian nobles abandoned themselves to indolence and vice.

  • Lord Rayleigh had an interest in abnormal psychological investigations, and became a member and vice president of the Society for Psychical Research.

  • But analytic thinking is victorious in morals, where the test of formal self-consistency distinguishes virtue from vice.

  • A statement may be true in philosophy and false in theology, or vice versa.

More sentences

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near vice in the Dictionary