Forms: 3– vice (5–6 Sc. wice), 4–6 vyce (5–6 Sc. wyce); 5 vise, wise, wisse; 5 vys, vijs (vyhs, Sc. vis), 6 vyss, Sc. wys. [a. AF. and OF. vice (mod.F. vice, = Pr. vici, Sp. and Pg. vicio, It. vizio):—L. vitium fault, defect, failing, etc.]
1. Depravity or corruption of morals; evil, immoral or wicked habits or conduct; indulgence in degrading pleasures or practices.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4025. Hit is ney vif ȝer þat we abbeþ yliued in such vice, Vor we nadde noȝt to done, & in such delice.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24701 (Edinb.). If ani man in vice be cast He mai him draw fra þat last And be þat he was are.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4116. In wham al þe tresor of malice Sal be hidde with alle maner of vice.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 7. Tho was the vertu sett above And vice was put under fote.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxiv. 70. Vyce destroyeth the myght and the rygour of the sowle.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 18. God … heryth alle men gladly Wych to hym preye, puryd from vyhs.
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, etc., 3662. Quhen thai tak it our mesour, Thai turne in wys and in arroure.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XI. (Percy Soc.), 46. Fy upon slouth, the nourysher of vyce, Whych unto youth doth often prejudice.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 119 b. That churche … is replenyshed with theftes, robberies, and all other kynd of vice.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 123. As, vertue is to be insued: Ergo, vice is to be eschewed.
1644. Milton, Educ., 5. Instructing them more amply in the knowledge of virtue, and the hatred of vice.
1689. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 104. It is impossible but that Vice must reign, where People are so ignorant of the commands of God.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 109. Vice is vice to him who is guilty of it.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., IV. Wks. 1813, V. 395. In order to avoid vice (says he), men must practise perpetual mortification.
1821. Byron, Mar. Fal., II. i. Vice cannot fix, and virtue cannot change,… For vice must have variety.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 406. To exist by beggary or plunder, in idleness and vice.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, I. 6. You, who blush for your mirth because your mirth is vice.
b. Personified.
c. 1420. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 602. A son of myn bastard, Whos name ys Vyce—he kepeth my vaward.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iv. 154. Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge.
1634. Milton, Comus, 760. I hate when vice can bolt her arguments, And vertue has no tongue to check her pride.
1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 78. Oft in the mingled Scene, I’ve chanc’d to see A rev’rend Vice, a grey Iniquity.
1754. Gray, Progr. Poesy, 80. Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant-Power, And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 106. Vice has such allowance, that her shifts And specious semblances have lost their use.
1813. Shelley, Falsehood & Vice, 11. Where … War’s mad fiends the scene environ,… There Vice and Falsehood took their stand.
2. A habit or practice of an immoral, degrading or wicked nature.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23286. Þai … Ne wald noght here bot þair delices, Þat drogh þam vntil oþer vices.
1340. Ayenb., 17. Vor prede makeþ of elmesse zenne, and of uirtues vices.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 308. Þat loue myȝte wexe Amonge þe foure vertues and vices destroye.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 205. Als often [as] he is touchid wyth any wyce. Ibid. Ofte Prayer quynchyth the Pryckynges of vices.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, I. i. (1883), 9. Whan he reccheth not ner taketh hede unto them that repreue hym and his vices.
1545. Brinklow, Lament., 79. They sett vp and mayntayne idolatrye, and other innumerable vices and wickedness.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 452. Such unaccustomed vices … semed not so muche to be forboden, as shewed.
1605. Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 170. The Gods are iust, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague vs.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 3. Nor [to] speak of Persons otherwise, than as the mention of their Virtues or Vices is essential to the work in hand.
1729. Law, Serious C., ii. (1732), 16. How it comes to pass that Swearing is so common a Vice amongst Christians.
1771. Junius Lett., xlv. (1788), 257. There are degrees in all the private vices.
1818. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), II. ii. 46. An Englishman’s worst vice is more human than a Roman’s best virtue.
1841. Emerson, Ess., I. x. (1905), 180. The virtues of society are vices of the saint.
1878. J. C. Morison, Gibbon, 160. Madame de Maintenon,… a woman, cold as ice and pure as snow, was freely charged with the most abhorrent vices.
b. Const. of (the vice in question).
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 5967. Þou art falle þan yn þe vyce Of coueytyse, þeft, and auaryce.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, Prol. 7. Thru þe vicis of ydilnes, gret foly…, & vantones.
a. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 118. Þer may no man fynde a payne, forto poynych dewly þe vyce of vnkyndnes.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlix. 1. In vice most vicius he excellis, That with the vice of tressone mellis.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 325. How subiect wee old men are to this vice of Lying.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Underwoods, lv. Ep. to Friend, 8. Not like their country neighbours that commit Their vice of loving for a Christmas-fit.
1754. J. Edwards, Freed. Will, III. v. 171. The Vertue of Temperance is regarded … as a necessary Means of gratifying the Vice of Covetousness.
1859. Tennyson, Geraint, 195. The dwarf … doubling all his master’s vice of pride, Made answer sharply that she should not know.
c. In horses: A bad habit or trick. Also without article (cf. sense 1).
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v., Bad Horsemen occasion most of these Vices, by correcting unduely or out of time.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., The rider is first cautiously to find whether this Vice proceeds from real stubbornness, or from faintness.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 154. The horse was warranted sound, free from vice, and not more than three years old.
1847. T. Brown, Mod. Farriery, 377. Of all the vices incidental to the horse, shying is one of the worst.
a. 1901. F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality (1903), I. 200. Those defects of stability which in a horse we call vice.
3. A character in a morality play representing one or other vice; hence, a stage jester or buffoon.
Very common c. 1560–1630; now only Hist.
1551–2. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 73. One vyces dagger & a ladle with a bable pendante … deliverid to the Lorde of mysrules foole.
1553. Respublica (1905), 1. Avarice…. The vice of the plaie.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 147. His face made of brasse, like a vice in a game, His iesture like Dauus, whom Terence doth name.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 156. He stands at their deuotion, and is but like an Ape, a Parrot, or a Vice in a play, to prate what is prompted or suggested unto him.
1627. Hakewill, Apol. (1630), 162. Luceia a common vice in playes followed the stage and acted thereon an hundred yeares.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. 1851, IV. 377. For I had rather … not to have to doe with Clowns and Vices.
1767. S. Paterson, Another Trav., I. 113. Tom was the vice of every comedy, and the punch of every puppet-shew of his time.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. ii. 140, note. I remember to have seen a stage direction for the vice, to lay about him lustily with a great pole.
1886. A. W. Ward, Old Eng. Drama (1901), 297. A favourite piece of horse-play in the old miracles and morals, when the Vice belabours the Devil.
transf. 1565. Calfhill, Answ. Treat. Crosse (1846), 210. When the Vice is come from the Altar, and the people shall have no more sport [etc.].
4. Moral fault or defect (without implication of serious wrongdoing); a flaw in character or conduct.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 106. Sir Henry mad þe fyne, & mad þe mariage. Þe may withouten vice, his weddyng was wele dight.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 355. For hardyment vith foly is vis; Bot hardyment, that mellit is Vith vit, is vorschip ay.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. vi. 161. Yet forgiue me God, That I doe bragge thus; this your ayre of France Hath blowne that vice in me.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 229. Whilest they thinke it enough to be without vice, they fall into that same maine vice to lacke vertues.
1794. Paley, Evid., III. iv. (1817), 319. Contempt, prior to examination, is an intellectual vice.
1827. Macaulay, Ess., Machiavelli (1897), 44. Ferocity and insolence were not among the vices of the national character.
5. A fault, defect, blemish or imperfection, in action or procedure or in the constitution of a thing.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 93. He with a manly voys seith this message,… Withouten vice of silable or of lettre.
a. 1400. Bk. Curtasye, 131, in Babees Bk. In salt saler yf þat þou pit Oþer fisshe or flesshe þat men may wyt, Þat is a vyce, as men me telles.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 911. The vesare, the aventaile,… Voyde with-owttyne vice, with wyndowes of syluer.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 100. The londis fatte, or lene, or thicke, or rare, Or drie, or moyst, and not withouten vice.
1548. Cooper, Elyot’s Dict., Anacoluthos, a vice in writyng or speakynge, whan the wordes aunswere not the one to the other.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 257. The foulest vice in language is to speake barbarously.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xxii. 188. There growes neither bread nor wine in these Ilands, for that the too great fertilitie and the vice of the soile suffers them not to seede.
1700. Rowe, Ambitious Step-Mother, Ded. I will engage not to be guilty of the common Vice of Dedications.
1729. Shelvocke, Artillery, III. 166. The first and most remarkable Vice in Rockets.
1781. J. Moore, View Soc. Italy (1790), I. xxxvii. 405. In edifices … capable of sublimity from their bulk the vice of diminishing is not compensated by harmony.
1810. Southey, in C. C. Southey, Life (1849), III. 274. The vice of the Friend is its roundaboutness.
1854. A. W. Fonblanque, in Life & Labours (1874), 513. Tenacity to fopperies and neglect of essentials is the vice of our Service.
1881. Armstrong, in Nature, XXIV. 451. The vice of the steam-engine lies in its inability to utilise heat of comparatively low grade.
b. A physical defect or blemish; a deformity; a taint, imperfection or weakness in some part of the system.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 99. Myda hadde vnder his longe heres Growynge vpon his heed two asses eres; The which vice he hydde, as he best myghte.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 181. If it so be þat allopucia comeþ of vijs of humouris,… þanne vlcera wole be in þe skyn.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 81. Iuyse of caprifoile þat is called licium availeþ bi itself to al þe vicez of þe mouþe.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 218. Demostenes … laburd so agayn a vice & ane impediment in his mouthe, þat no man myght speke fayrer.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 F j. Nat that the dyuturnyte indyketh the curacyon, but the vyce of the blode.
1552. Huloet, Vice of a shorte breath, or winde, apnæa.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 41. I perceive I doe anticipate the vices of age.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 693. Launce the Sore, And cut the Head; for ’till the Core be found, The secret Vice is fed, and gathers Ground.
1743. trans. Heister’s Surg., 303. Physicians … attribute most Disorders of the Body to some Vice in the Blood.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 65. The numerous vices which consist in a disunion or separation in the median line. Ibid., 104. Vices of conformation are observed in some of these membranes.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., iii. Shall I take a thing so blind, Embrace her as my natural good; Or crush her, like a vice of blood?
† c. A spoiled or vitiated condition. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. vi. (Bodl. MS.). Mete and wyne ikept in suche a vessel takeþ an horrible sauoure and smelle of þe vice of bras.
6. Viciousness, harmfulness.
1837. [Mrs. Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 162. The poison … will dry up,… but … will not lose its virtue, or rather its vice.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. v. In fact, half the vice of the Slogger’s hitting is neutralized, for he daren’t lunge out freely.
7. Comb. a. With pa. pples., as vice-addicted, -bitten, -corrupted, -created, -haunted, -polluted, -riddled, -worn; also vice-sick adj.
1603. Harsnet, Pop. Impost., 115. For a Devil to be so Vice-haunted as that he should roare at the picture of a Vice burnt in a pece of paper … is a passion exceeding all apprehension.
1614. Gorges, Lucan, II. 56. These our vice-corrupted times.
1735. Thomson, Liberty, II. 496. Independence stoops the head, To Vice enslav’d, and Vice-created Wants.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, V. xxx. 186. What a paltry creature is a man vice-bitten, and sensible of detected folly.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Choephorœ, 337. Rouse, sting, and drive the vice-polluted wretch With brazen scourges tortur’d thro’ the city.
1845. Weekly Dispatch, 7 Sept., 1/1. Of all Italy, the most degraded, despicable, and vice-addicted portion is the Papal territory.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), II. 223. He has converted … the over-grown coxcomb boy, into the vice-sick, dispirited debauchee.
1884. ‘Edna Lyall,’ We Two, iv. The usual careworn or viceworn faces.
1919. E. Johnson, Rise Christendom, 104. Many a vice-haunted monk must have gone mad but for this resource.
1890. B. Vosnjak, A Bulwark against Germany, 160. Berlin has become the most vice-riddled city in the world.
b. With pres. pples., as vice-loathing, -loving, -punishing, -rebuking, -taming, -upbraiding.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. Imposture, 506. Vice-loathing Lord, pure Justice, Patron strong, Law’s life, Right’s rule; will he do any wrong? Ibid., ii. Babylon, 35. Such vice-upbraiding objects Who … Spares neither mother, brother, kiff, nor kin.
1611. Cotgr., Satyre, a Satyre; an Inuectiue, or vice-rebuking Poeme.
1619. A. Newman, Pleas. Vision (1840), 5. And still, vice-punishing Authority, He (outlaw-like) would slight.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, III. III. v. Religious Plato, and vice-taming Orpheus.
1890. G. M. Powell, in Christian Thought, VII. 129. Some time-serving preaching of a pastor who was bullied into shunning to declare the whole council of God by the ease and vice-loving sentiments of a rich contributor to his salary.
8. attrib., as vice-complexion.
1635. Quarles, Embl., II. x. 4. A Hagg, repair’d with vice-complexion, paint, A quest-house of complaint.
