vice

noun

1. 1

   Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)

   Pride is a vice, not a virtue.

   Smoking was a vice Sally picked up in high school.

   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?

   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

2. 2

   Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.

3. 3

   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.

   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.

4. 4

   Variant of vice squadslangClipping of vice squad.

noun

1. 1

   A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.

2. 2

   A winding or spiral staircase.

3. 3

   obsoleteA grip or grasp.

   Fang. If I but fiſt him once: if he come but within my Vice.

4. 4

   Variant of viseAlternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).

verb

1. 1

   Variant of viseAlternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”).

   Camillo. As he had ſeen’t, or beene an Instrument / To vice you to't, that you haue toucht his Queene / Forbiddenly.

   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.

adjective

1. 1

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

   vice president

   vice admiral

preposition

1. 1

   datedInstead of; in place of; versus.

   He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned.

   A very small cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches.

noun

1. 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 […]

Forms

plural

vices

past tense

viced

past participle

viced

present participle

vicing

third person singular

vices