vice
noun /vaɪs/
/vaɪs/
- [uncountable] criminal activities that involve sex or drugs
- At the door were two plain-clothes detectives from the vice squad.
- The bright 21-year-old turned to a secret life of vice after getting bored with her studies at college.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- secret
- have
- indulge
- indulge in
- …
- [uncountable, countable] behaviour that is evil or immoral; a quality in somebody’s character that is evil or immoral
- The film ended most satisfactorily: vice punished and virtue rewarded.
- Greed is a terrible vice.
- (humorous) Cigarettes are my only vice.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesc1- He used his inheritance to indulge his vices of drinking and gambling.
- Of his many vices, his cruelty was the worst.
- She often spends a fortune on clothes—it's her greatest vice.
- The occasional cigar is my only vice.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- secret
- have
- indulge
- indulge in
- …
- (especially British English)
enlarge image(North American English usually vise)[countable] a tool with two metal blocks that can be moved together by turning a screw. The vice is used to hold an object in place while work is done on it.- He held my arm in a vice-like (= very firm) grip.
Word Originsenses 1 to 2 Middle English: via Old French from Latin vitium.sense 3 Middle English (denoting a screw or winch): from Old French vis, from Latin vitis ‘vine’.