vice

Plural: vices

Noun

• moral weakness
• a specific form of evildoing
  • "vice offends the moral standards of the community"
• Bad or immoral behaviour.
• Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
• Clipping of vice squad.
• 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.
• Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).
• A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
• A winding or spiral staircase.
• A grip or grasp.
• One who acts in place of a superior.

Verb

Verb Forms: viced, vicing, vices

• To hold or squeeze with a vice.
• Alternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”).

Adj

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

Prep

• Instead of; in place of; versus.

Examples

• Pride is a vice, not a virtue.
• She tried to vice her opponent’s options, blocking off the crucial bonus squares.
• Smoking was a vice Sally picked up in high school.
• vice admiral
• vice president

Synonyms

frailty

Antonyms

virtue

Related Words

habit, vicious, vitiate, vitiligo, vituperate

Anagrams of vice