vice
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)
- 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?
- 2022 October 21, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, “Anti-Hero”, in Midnights[1], 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
- (law) Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
- (law enforcement, slang) 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.
- 1839, Scholefield v. Robb; cited in Gilligan, Brenda, Practical Horse Law[2], 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
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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See also
Etymology 2
See vise.
Noun
vice (plural vices)
- (UK) Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).
- A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
- (architecture) A winding or spiral staircase.
- (obsolete) A grip or grasp.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 79, line 22:
- Fang. If I but fiſt him once: if he come but within my Vice.
Translations
Verb
vice (third-person singular simple present vices, present participle vicing, simple past and past participle viced)
- 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], 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)
- in place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank
Derived terms
- vice admiral
- vice governor
- vice mayor
- vice president
- vice-principal
Preposition
vice
- (chiefly dated) Instead of; in place of; versus.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC:
- He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC:
- A very small cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches.
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)
- 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 […]
- c. 1850s-1870s, Edward Minister and Son, The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting-Room Companion
Further reading
Anagrams
Esperanto
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈvit͡se/
- Rhymes: -it͡se
- Hyphenation: vi‧ce
Adverb
vice
Related terms
French
Etymology
Inherited from Middle French vice, from Old French vice, borrowed from Latin vitium.
Pronunciation
Noun
vice m (plural vices)
- vice (bad habit)
Derived terms
See also
Further reading
- “vice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Ido
Etymology
Borrowed from English vice-, French vice-, German vize-, Italian vice-, Russian ви́це- (více-), Spanish vice-.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈvi.t͡se/
Preposition
vice
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
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈvi.t͡ʃe/
- Rhymes: -itʃe
- Hyphenation: vì‧ce
Noun
vice m or f by sense (invariable)
Related terms
Anagrams
Latin
Etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈwɪ.kɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈviː.t͡ʃe]
Noun
vice
- ablative singular of vicis
Preposition
vice (+ genitive)
Derived terms
Descendants
- → Bulgarian: вице- (vice-)
- → Catalan: vice-, vice
- → English: vice-, vice
- → French: vice-, vice
- → Galician: vice-, vice
- → German: vize-
- → Ido: vice-, vice
- → Italian: vice-, vice
- → Piedmontese: vice-, vice
- → Polish: wice-
- → Portuguese: vice-, vice
- → Russian: вице- (vice-)
- → Spanish: vice-, vice
- → Swedish: vice
Etymology 2
Noun
vīce
- 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
- IPA(key): /ˈviːs(ə)/
Noun
vice (plural vices)
- A fault or imperfection; a negative quality or attribute of something:
- A bad habit or tendency that one has; a negative human behaviour.
- A mistake; a fault due to deficience in knowledge or reasoning.
- (rare) An imperfection or blemish in one's visage or look.
- Vice, iniquity, sinful behaviour; absence of virtue or morality:
- A sickness, disease or malady; a deleterious process effecting something.
Related terms
Descendants
References
- “vīce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 1 March 2019.
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French vice, borrowed from Latin vitium.
Noun
vice m (plural vices)
- vice (bad habit)
Descendants
- French: vice
Portuguese
Noun
vice m or f by sense (plural vices)
- used as an abbreviation of any word containing the prefix vice-
Slovene
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʋìːt͡sɛ/, /ʋíːt͡sɛ/
Noun
vīce f pl
Declension
Feminine, a-stem | ||
---|---|---|
nominative | více | |
genitive | víc | |
plural | ||
nominative (imenovȃlnik) |
více | |
genitive (rodȋlnik) |
víc | |
dative (dajȃlnik) |
vícam | |
accusative (tožȋlnik) |
více | |
locative (mẹ̑stnik) |
vícah | |
instrumental (orọ̑dnik) |
vícami |
Spanish
Noun
vice m or f by sense (plural vice)
- vice (second in command)
Swedish
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Adjective
vice (not comparable)
Related terms
- vicedirektör
- vicekonung
- vicepresident
- vicevärd
- vice versa
Yola
Etymology
From Middle English voys, from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, veys, from Latin vōx.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /viːs/
Noun
vice
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