vice
1 Americannoun
-
an immoral or evil habit or practice.
These biblical verses cover the vices of boastfulness and pride, miserliness, and hypocrisy.
- Synonyms:
- depravity, wrong, wrongdoing, fault
- Antonyms:
- virtue
-
immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior.
In the Christian religion there are numerous instances of sudden conversions from a life of vice to one of virtue.
- Synonyms:
- corruption, corruptness, badness, wickedness, iniquity, sin, immorality
-
sexual immorality, especially prostitution.
- Synonyms:
- licentiousness, degeneracy, wantonness
-
a particular form of depravity.
-
a fault, defect, or shortcoming.
a minor vice in his literary style.
-
(of a horse’s behavior) a bad habit.
Allowing your horse turnout in a paddock may prevent vices such as weaving or wood chewing normally observed in a stall.
-
Sometimes Vice vice squad.
Detective Crockett was reassigned from the Robbery Division to Vice last year.
-
Vice, a character in the English morality plays, a personification of general vice or of a particular vice, serving as the buffoon.
-
Archaic. a physical defect, flaw, or infirmity.
In most cases, attempts to relieve the symptoms will be of little avail without at the same time relieving or removing the constitutional vice which has induced this condition.
adjective
noun
preposition
noun
-
an immoral, wicked, or evil habit, action, or trait
-
habitual or frequent indulgence in pernicious, immoral, or degrading practices
-
a specific form of pernicious conduct, esp prostitution or sexual perversion
-
a failing or imperfection in character, conduct, etc
smoking is his only vice
-
obsolete pathol any physical defect or imperfection
-
a bad trick or disposition, as of horses, dogs, etc
adjective
noun
noun
verb
noun
preposition
Related Words
See fault.
Other Word Forms
- viceless adjective
- vicelike adjective
Etymology
Origin of vice1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin vitium “a fault, defect, vice”
Origin of vice3
First recorded in 1760–70; from Latin: literally, “instead of,” ablative of vicis (genitive; not attested in nominative) “recurring action, turn, interchange, alternation”
Origin of vice-4
Middle English ≪ Latin vice vice 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The vice presidential seal adorns the wall behind the meeting table.
From Barron's
Typically, when stocks slide, Treasury prices rise—and vice versa.
From Barron's
Typically, when stocks slide, Treasury prices rise—and vice versa.
From Barron's
Early data show wages are increasing for AI-exposed jobs that “place a high value on a worker’s tacit knowledge and experience,” wrote J. Scott Davis, an assistant vice president in the Dallas Fed’s research department.
From MarketWatch
FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association and executive director of the Katz Institute for Women's Health and senior vice president of women's health at Northwell Health in New York City.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
