Definition of "vice"

vice¹

/vaɪs/

noun
plural vices
1. Bad or immoral behaviour.
  Quotations
  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, 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, Slayer (lyrics and music), “Vices”
  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, performed by Taylor Swift
2. (law) Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
3. (law enforcement, slang) Clipping 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.

vice²

/vaɪs/

noun
plural vices
1. (UK) Alternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”)
2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
3. (architecture) A winding or spiral staircase.
4. (obsolete) A grip or grasp.
  Quotations
  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, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i], page 79, line 22
verb
third-person singular simple present vices, present participle vicing, simple past and past participle viced
1. Alternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”)
  Quotations
  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, [Act I, scene ii], page 281, line 416
  The coachman's hand was viced between his upper and lower thigh.
  1849, Thomas De Quincey, “The Vision of Sudden Death”, in Blackwood's Magazine

vice³

/vaɪs/

adjective
not comparable
1. in place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank
preposition
1. (dated) instead of, in place of, versus (sense 2)
  Quotations
  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
  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
noun
plural vices
1. One who acts in place of a superior.
  Quotations
  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