vice /vaɪs/ BrE AmE noun
[ Sense 1-3: Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin vitium 'fault, vice' ]
1 . [uncountable] criminal activities that involve sex or drugs:
the fight against vice on the streets
The police have smashed a vice ring (=a group of criminals involved in vice) in Chicago.
⇨ ↑ Vice Squad
2 . [countable] a bad habit:
Smoking is my only vice.
3 . [uncountable and countable] a bad or immoral quality in a person, or bad or immoral behaviour OPP virtue :
Jealousy is a vice.
to reward virtue and punish vice
4 .
[countable] (usually vise AmE) a tool that holds an object very firmly so that you can work on it:
He held my arm like a vice.
⇨ ↑ vice-like