vice 1
/vuys/ , n.
1. an immoral or evil habit or practice.
2. immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior: a life of vice.
3. sexual immorality, esp. prostitution.
4. a particular form of depravity.
5. a fault, defect, or shortcoming: a minor vice in his literary style.
6. a physical defect, flaw, or infirmity: a constitutional vice.
7. a bad habit, as in a horse.
8. ( cap. ) a character in the English morality plays, a personification of general vice or of a particular vice, serving as the buffoon.
[ 1250-1300; ME vitium a fault, defect, vice ]
Syn. 1. See fault. 2. depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, corruption. 5. blemish.
Ant. 1, 2. virtue.
vice 2
/vuys/ , n. , v.t. , viced, vicing .
vise.
vice 3
/vuy"see, -seuh, vuys/ , prep.
instead of; in the place of.
[ 1760-70; vicis (gen.; not attested in nom.) interchange, alternation ]