vice

plural vices

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

   Pride is a vice, not a virtue.

   4 more examples

   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?

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria

   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

   2015, “Vices” (01:22-02:33 from the start), in Repentless (Thrash Metal), performed by Slayer

   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

   2022 October 21, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, “Anti-Hero”, in Midnights (Pop Rock, Synth-Pop, Electropop), performed by Taylor Swift

   Synonyms: profligacy, carrying-on, Corinthianism, knavery, profligacy, rakehood · Antonyms: virtue

2. lawAny of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
3. abbreviationclippingslanggovernmentClipping of vice squad.
4. 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.

   1839, Scholefield v. Robb; cited in Gilligan, Brenda, Practical Horse Law, 2002, →ISBN

plural vices

1. CommonwealthalternativeAlternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).
2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
3. architectureA winding or spiral staircase.
4. obsoleteA grip or grasp.

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

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, 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

present singular third person vices · participle present vicing · participle past viced · past viced

1. alternativeAlternative 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.

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   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

1. not comparablein place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank

   vice admiral

   1 more example

   vice president

1. datedInstead of; in place of; versus.

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

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC

   1 more example

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

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC

plural vices

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 […]

plural Vices

1. A surname.