vice
Pluralvices
Pluralvices
- 1Immoral or wicked behavior in general, or a particular bad habit or moral fault.
Gambling was his only real vice.
The preacher warned his congregation against every kind of vice.
UsageWith no article it means wickedness in general: a life of vice. A vice is one bad habit, often a mild one.
Similarwickedness, immorality, sin, depravity, evil
- 2Designating a person ranked immediately below another and serving in their place; used in titles such as vice president.
The vice chairman presided over the meeting in the chairman's absence.
He served as vice principal for nearly a decade.
UsageGoes before a title: vice president, vice captain. Some styles add a hyphen: vice-president.
- 3Another spelling of vise: a tool with two jaws, closed by a screw or lever, that holds an object firmly while it is worked on.
The carpenter secured the timber in a heavy vice.
A bench vice kept the joint firm while the glue set.
UsageAmerican English spells the tool vise. Figurative uses follow the same split: a grip like a vice.
Less common meanings
- 4In place of or instead of, especially of one person succeeding another in a post or appointment.
The official notice read: Sarah Lane to be postmaster, vice Tom Hill, retired.
He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned.
1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of PendennisUsageUsed in appointment notices, between the new and old holder: Lane, vice Hill, retired. Elsewhere, say instead of.
Note
Thackeray uses it around 1850 in its natural setting, the formula of appointments: "gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned." He also borrows the official formula for comic effect when a cab-boy succeeds one "Stoopid."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Thackeray's use dates from around 1850, in the original publication period of The History of Pendennis. huntington.org
- The quoted wording occurs in Thackeray's Pendennis, as narration about John rather than dialogue spoken by Thackeray or a character. gutenberg.org
- Official appointment notices use the pattern new holder, vice, previous holder, followed by the reason for replacement. thegazette.co.uk
- Thackeray also applies the formula to a cab-boy replacing Stoopid. gutenberg.org
- 5A category of crime involving activities such as prostitution, gambling, drugs, alcohol, or pornography, varying by jurisdiction.
The department's report listed arrests for vice alongside violent crime.
Many jurisdictions classify online gambling as vice subject to special rules.
UsageCommon patterns include arrests for vice and a crackdown on vice.
Note
A legal and police category rather than a single offense. What falls under it depends on the jurisdiction, and the list can reach beyond gambling, drugs and prostitution to weapons and tobacco. The name carries over the moral meaning, because these are activities the law regulates on moral grounds.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Vice is an umbrella category of crime rather than a single offense. en.wikipedia.org
- The crimes included vary by jurisdiction and can include weapons and tobacco offenses. en.wiktionary.org
- The criminal category reflects the word's moral meaning. en.wikipedia.org
- 6Short for vice squad: the police unit that deals with crimes such as prostitution, gambling, and illegal drugs.
She transferred from homicide to vice last spring.
Vice had been watching the address for weeks.
UsageUsually no article, like a department name: work vice, transfer to vice.
- 7Another spelling of vise: to hold or squeeze something tightly, as in a vise.
Camillo. As he had ſeen’t, or beene an Instrument / To vice you to't, that you haue toucht his Queene / Forbiddenly.
c. 1610, William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”Note
It has long carried a figurative squeeze. Shakespeare's Camillo in The Winter's Tale speaks of an instrument "to vice you to't," pressing someone into an act. Thomas De Quincey in 1849 describes a coachman's hand as viced in place.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Camillo speaks the quoted words in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale; the instrument metaphor describes compelling someone to act. gutenberg.org
- Thomas De Quincey describes a coachman's hand as viced between his thighs. gutenberg.org
- The De Quincey passage was published in 1849. gutenberg.org
- 8A fault in a horse's temper or behavior that makes the animal dangerous, harms its health, or reduces its usefulness.
The mare's only vice was a habit of kicking in her stall.
Buyers checked the gelding carefully for any vice before the sale.
Similarfault
Note
Horse law draws a line here: a vice is a fault of temper, and unsoundness is a fault of body. Brenda Gilligan's Practical Horse Law (2002), working from the 1839 case Scholefield v. Robb, sets rearing, which makes a horse dangerous, against navicular disease, which leaves it fit only for light hacking. The line is not absolute, since a vice can itself render a horse unsound.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Horse law broadly distinguishes temperament-related vices from physical unsoundness. cdn.harper-adams.ac.uk
- Brenda Gilligan wrote Practical Horse Law. ndl.ethernet.edu.et
- Gilligan draws on Scholefield v. Robb, a case dated 1839. lawbriefpublishing.com
- Gilligan contrasts dangerous rearing with navicular disease restricting a horse to light hacking. lawbriefpublishing.com
- A vice can itself make a horse unsound. lawbriefpublishing.com
- 9A grip or grasp; a firm hold taken on something.
Fang. If I but fiſt him once: if he come but within my Vice.
c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth,. Epilogue.”Note
Shakespeare's officer Fang uses it in Henry IV, Part 2: "if he come but within my vice," meaning within reach of his grip. The living image comes through the clamping tool instead, as in a grip like a vice.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- William Shakespeare wrote Henry IV, Part 2. gutenberg.org
- Fang is an officer in the play. gutenberg.org
- Fang says the quoted words; the First Folio supports 'if' rather than the 'an' found in some editions. firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
- Vice here means a grip or grasp. en.wiktionary.org
- 10A person who acts in the place of a superior; a deputy.
- 11A staircase that winds upward in a spiral.
- 12A tool for drawing lead into cames: the flat grooved rods that hold the panes in a leaded window.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Latin "vitium" ("fault or blemish") passed into Old French and then Middle English as vice. In English it took the place of the native Old English word "unþēaw."
Its source is Latin, where vice, the ablative of vicis, meant "in place of." Related words worth a look are Spanish "vez" (a time or a turn) and the French noun "fois" (a time).