VICE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vice mean? 

• VICE (noun)
  The noun VICE has 2 senses:

1. moral weakness

2. a specific form of evildoing

  Familiarity information: VICE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Moral weakness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

frailty; vice

Hypernyms ("vice" is a kind of...):

evil; evilness (the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A specific form of evildoing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

vice offends the moral standards of the community

Hypernyms ("vice" is a kind of...):

evildoing; transgression (the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vice"):

gambling; gaming; play (the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize))

intemperance; intemperateness (consumption of alcoholic drinks)

Derivation:

vicious (having the nature of vice)

 Context examples 

His vices were as open as his virtues.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There’s no vice in him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not, I should hope, of the proportion of virtue to vice throughout the kingdom.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He could not open the door without first closing the closet door, and vice versa.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Control group subjects who drank only beer the first time around received only wine on the second study day (and vice versa).

(Wine before beer, or beer before wine? Either way, you’ll be hungover, University of Cambridge)

My revenge is of no moment to you; yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the devouring and only passion of my soul.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had chosen.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Never,” said my aunt, “be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have spoken of our English-speaking half-breed, Gomez—a fine worker and a willing fellow, but afflicted, I fancy, with the vice of curiosity, which is common enough among such men.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Such devices may be electrical, fluidic or mechanical and are sometimes used to convert a small continuous power source into a short surge of energy or vice versa.

(Device Energy Storage System Problem Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)