vice

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word vice. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word vice, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say vice in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word vice you have here. The definition of the word vice will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofvice, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Vice, viće, viče, více, vice-, and vicĕ

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

PIE word
*dwóh₁

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

Noun

vice (plural vices)

  1. Bad or immoral behaviour.
    Pride is a vice, not a virtue.
    Smoking was a vice Sally picked up in high school.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:
      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?
    • 2015, Slayer (lyrics and music), “Vices”:
      It's a rush you can't deny / A little violence is the ultimate drug / Let's get high / You've been powerless to your vices / Self-control defies you
    • 2022 October 21, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, “Anti-Hero”, in Midnights‎, performed by Taylor Swift:
      I should not be left to my own devices / they come with prices and vices / I end up in crisis / Tale as old as time
  2. (law) Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
  3. (law enforcement, slang) 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.
    • 1839, Scholefield v. Robb; cited in Gilligan, Brenda, Practical Horse Law‎, 2002, →ISBN:
      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 render a horse unsound - possibly a crib biter will damage its wind.
Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “bad habit”): virtue
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Etymology 2

See vise.

Noun

vice (plural vices)

  1. (UK) 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. (architecture) A winding or spiral staircase.
  4. (obsolete) A grip or grasp.
Translations
screw apparatus — see vise

Verb

vice (third-person singular simple present vices, present participle vicing, simple past and past participle viced)

  1. Alternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”)
    • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 281, line 416:
      Camillo. As he had ſeen’t, or beene an Instrument / To vice you to't, that you haue toucht his Queene / Forbiddenly.
    • 1849 December, Thomas De Quincey, “The English Mail-coach. Section the Second.—The Vision of Sudden Death.”, in Miscellanies (De Quincey’s Works; IV), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 335:
      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 between his upper and lower thigh, this was impossible.

Etymology 3

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

Adjective

vice (not comparable)

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

Preposition

vice

  1. (dated) instead of, in place of, versus (sense 2)
Usage notes
  • While rare in modern standard English, this usage still appears among members of the United States military. This usage is common in informal rail transport contexts in the United Kingdom.
  • Statements such as "vice Jones, who had resigned" may be abbreviated "vice Jones, resigned"

Noun

vice (plural vices)

  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

Further reading

Anagrams

Esperanto

Adverb

vice

  1. in rows

Related terms

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French vice, from Old French vice, borrowed from Latin vitium.

Pronunciation

Noun

vice m (plural vices)

  1. vice (bad habit)

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

Ido

Etymology

Borrowed from English vice-, French vice-, German vize-, Italian vice-, Russian ви́це- (více-), Spanish vice-.

Pronunciation

Preposition

vice

  1. instead, instead of

Derived terms

References

  • Progreso III (in Ido), 1910–1911, page 102
  • Progreso IV (in Ido), 1911–1912, page 211, 408, 409
  • Progreso V (in Ido), 1912–1913, page 723
  • Progreso VII (in Ido), 1914, page 130

Italian

Etymology

From Latin vicem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈvi.t͡ʃe/
  • Rhymes: -itʃe
  • Hyphenation: vì‧ce

Noun

vice m or f by sense (invariable)

  1. deputy, substitute, vice

Related terms

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Noun

vice

  1. ablative singular of vicis

Preposition

vice

  1. in place of, subordinate to
    vice alicuius fungor ― I deputise for someone

Derived terms

Descendants

  • English: vice-
  • French: vice
  • German: vize-
  • Ido: vice
  • Italian: vice
  • Piedmontese: vice
  • Swedish: vice

Etymology 2

Noun

vīce

  1. vocative singular of vīcus

References

  • “vice”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “vice”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • Dizionario Latino, Olivetti
  • vice in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French vice, visse, from Latin vitium.

Pronunciation

Noun

vice (plural vices)

  1. A fault or imperfection; a negative quality or attribute of something:
    1. A bad habit or tendency that one has; a negative human behaviour.
    2. A mistake; a fault due to deficience in knowledge or reasoning.
    3. (rare) An imperfection or blemish in one's visage or look.
  2. Vice, iniquity, sinful behaviour; absence of virtue or morality:
    1. A vice; a general tendency or action that is morally bad.
    2. A specific example of immoral or sinful behaviour.
  3. A sickness, disease or malady; a deleterious process effecting something.

Related terms

Descendants

References

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French vice, borrowed from Latin vitium.

Noun

vice m (plural vices)

  1. vice (bad habit)

Descendants

Portuguese

Noun

vice m or f by sense (plural vices)

  1. used as an abbreviation of any word containing the prefix vice-

Slovene

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʋìːt͡sɛ/, /ʋíːt͡sɛ/

Noun

vīce f pl

  1. purgatory

Inflection

 The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.
Feminine, a-stem
nominative více
genitive víc
plural
nominative
(imenovȃlnik) 		více
genitive
(rodȋlnik) 		—
dative
(dajȃlnik) 		—
accusative
(tožȋlnik) 		—
locative
(mẹ̑stnik) 		vícah
instrumental
(orọ̑dnik) 		vícami

Spanish

Noun

vice m or f by sense (plural vice)

  1. vice (second in command)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Adjective

vice (not comparable)

  1. vice, second in rank, deputy, stand-in, acting

Related terms

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English voys, from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, veys, from Latin vōx.

Pronunciation

Noun

vice

  1. voice

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 75
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia