Forms: (4 viz. vicz), 4–6 vys (5 vijs, 6 Sc. wys), vyse, 5–6 Sc. wise, 6– vise; 4–6 (9) vyce (6 fyce), 4– vice. [a. OF. vis (also mod.F.), viz, vitz, etc.:—L. vītis vine, with reference to the spiral growth of the tendrils. So Pr. vitz, It. vite screw.]
1. A winding or spiral staircase. Obs. exc. arch.
[1334–5. Ely Sacr. Rolls (1907), II. 73. In j serrura empt. pro hostio in le Viz in novo Campanile, ij d.]
1382. Wyclif, 1 Kings vi. 8. Bi a vyce [L. cochlea] thei stieden vp into the mydil sowpynge place, and fro the mydil into the thridde.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 87. He ordeyned games and plaies, and made walles and vices, and oþere strong places.
1435. Contract for Fotheringhay Ch. (1841), 28. In the said stepill shall be a Vice towrnyng, servyng till the said Body, Isles and Qwere.
c. 1450. Contin. Brut, 347. An aungell come doun fro þe stage on high, by a vice, and sette a cround of golde & precious stonez & perles apon þe Kingez hed.
1525. Bury Wills (Camden), 244. The byldyng and fynysshynge of the vise of Seynt James’s Chirche.
1543. Dunmow Churchw. MS., fol. 36. vi. days warke and a half abowt the sowth ile and the vyse off the stepull.
1648. Hexham, II. s.v. Spille, A Vice to gett up on, or a Winding-stares.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, I. 16. A handsome stone vice or spiral staircase.
1900. Hope, in Yorks. Archaeol. Jrnl., XV. 334. In the north-east corner is a vice, partly built of glazed bricks.
† b. The case or shaft of a spiral stair. rare.
1466. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 93. Thei shal make … the Roofe of the vice of the staire. And … shal … fynde alle the bord and tymbre … for the Roof of the vice aforsaid.
a. 1500. Chaucer’s Dreme, 1312. I rise and walkt … Till I a winding staire found, And held the vice aye in my hond, And upward softly so gan creepe.
† 2. A device of the nature of a screw or winch for bending a crossbow or catapult. Hence bow (etc.) of vice. Obs.
13[?]. Coer de L., 3970. Richard bent an arweblast off vys, And schotte it to a tour.
[1371–3. Acc. Exch. K. R., 397/10 m. 3. ij. vicz ad tendendum balistas.]
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2424. Thane they beneyde [read bendyde] in burghe bowes of vyse.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. 4227. Awblasteris, and bowis or wise, And al thynge þat mycht mak serwice.
† b. A mechanical contrivance or device by which some piece of apparatus, etc., is worked. Obs. (common in the 16th c.).
Orig. no doubt implying some application of a screw, but in later use employed more loosely and perhaps associated with DEVICE 7 (cf. VICE sb.5).
a. 1400. R. Glouc. Chron. (Rolls), II. 780. Man mai … þinche muche wonder hou hij were arerd For nis þer noþer gyn ne vys þat hit myȝte do.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., iii. (Percy Soc.), 15. The little turrets with ymages of golde About was set, whiche with the wynde aye moved, Wyth propre vices.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. clvi. 145. Imagys on horse backe aperyd out of sondrye placis, and after departyd agayne by meane of sertayne vyces.
1547. Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), II. 1. He showed a picture of the resurrection of our Lord made with vices, which putt out his legges of sepulchree … and turned his heade.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., p. xiii. b/1. The vice, or meanes, wherby this Instrumente is opened and shutte agayne.
a. 1614. Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1638), 169. His whole body goes all upon skrewes, and his face is the vice that moves them.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 49. Idolles, and Statues, which artificially are moued by vises & gynnes.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low C. Warres, VIII. 20. All the power was in the Burgesses, at whose pleasure they were nominated and moved, like wooden Puppets with a Vice.
† c. A clasp or fastening for a hood. Obs.–0
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 510/1. Vice, hood sperynge, spira.
† 3. A screw. Obs.
Not always clearly distinguishable from sense 2 b.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 6282. Many vys and many sotyl pyn In þe stede he made aboute goon, Þe crafty lokkes vndoynge euerychon.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. xvii. (1869), 184. Þe anguishe þat so harde presseth troubel herte, þat it thinketh it is streyned in a pressour shet with a vys.
a. 1450. Fysshynge w. Angle (1883), 8. [A staff] with a pyke yn þe neþer ende fastnyed with a remevyng vise.
1527. Inv. Goods Dk. Richmond, 18, in Camden Misc., III. A Bedstede of waynscote … well kerved, with vices and garthes to the same.
1551. Sir J. Williams, Accompte (Abbotsford Cl.), 73. Paid for viij paier of vices of iron made for the saied seven images. Ibid., 76. An other paier of candellstickes … lackinge a vice.
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. xxvii. H iij b. In his backe prepare a vice or scrue to be fastned in the top of some staffe.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 484. A broad goblet or standing peece there was … with a devise appendant to it, for to be set too and taken off by a vice.
1605. Stow, Ann., 1281. A Pinnace was made by an house Carpenter;… this was made to be taken a-sunder, and set togither with vices.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 134. He is pourtrayed in white stone,… his deske with a vice turning in it, and his bookes vnder it.
b. A screw-press. rare.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Agony, ii. Sinne is that presse and vice, which forceth pain To hunt his cruell food through ev’ry vein.
[1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxi. 548. Apples were pressed in a mill with a screw or vice.]
c. spec. (See quot.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2716/2. Vyce (Coopering), a gimlet-pointed hand-screw employed to hold up the head while the staves are closed around it.
† 4. A tap of a vessel; a screw-stopper. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 158. Vne vis,… a vice of a cuppe, or suche lyke. Ibid., 284/2. Vyce to putte in a vessell of wyne to drawe the wyne out at, chantepleure.
1564. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 174. One vice of gold enameled, one sylver spone doble gilt.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XLII. lxxv. This took the water from the azure skie From whence, with turning of some cock or vice, Great store of water would mount up on high.
1612. in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 305. Flagones of glase with vices covered with leather, the dozen, xii li.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. v. (1664), 26. The bottle is stopped and shut up with a stoppel, but the flaggon with a vice.
5. A tool composed of two jaws, opened and closed by means of a screw, which firmly grip and hold a piece of work in position while it is being filed, sawn or otherwise operated upon; used especially by workers in metal or carpenters. Cf. HAND-VICE.
The spelling vise is now usual only in U.S.
1500. Nottingham Rec., III. 72. Unum vise et diversa files.
1584. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 145. All my stiddes,… one vice, all my naile tooles and all my hammers.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., i. 5. The wider the two ends of the Spring stand asunder, the wider it throws the Chaps of the Vice open.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 321/2. The Vice, called the Bench Vice,… holdeth all sorts of Iron work that requires Fileing.
1745. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 10 (1748), II. 201. There is no doubt but a pair of globes will make a better figure in their anti-chambers than the vice and wheel.
1797. Phil. Trans., LXXXVII. 258. In this machine the body to be pulled asunder is held fast by two strong vices.
1827. N. Arnott, Physics, I. 177. It is a screw which draws together the iron jaws of a smith’s vice.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, xxiii. A long low workshop, fitted with benches, and vices, and tools, and straps, and wheels.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, xiii. (1880), 464. The vice for trout flies is a small brass table vice.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 284. For nearly all operations connected with watchmaking either the work or the tool is gripped in the vice.
fig. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 24. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust…. If I but fist him once: if he come but within my Vice.
1866. B. Taylor, Poems, The Waves. Bound in the vice Of the Arctic ice.
1901. Munsey’s Mag., XXIV. 803/1. The doctor’s hands, picking at the iron vise at his windpipe, grew feebler.
b. Used in similes or comparisons.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, ii. To secure him with a grasp like that of his own iron vice, was, for the powerful Smith, the work of a single moment.
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. v. 110. Catesby stretched out his hand across the table; took hold of that of his friend, and held it with a grasp as of an iron vice.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. xii. 363. The jaws of a gigantic vice appear to have closed upon them.
1885. Harper’s Mag., Dec., 90/1. The other hand … was crossed upon my breast, and held there as if in a vise.
6. A tool used for drawing lead into grooved rods for lattice windows.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vict,… an Instrument with two Wheels made use of to draw the Lead in Glazing-work.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., There are some of these Vices double, and that will draw two Leads at once.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 638. A vice, with different cheeks and cutters, to turn out the different kinds of lead as the magnitude of the window or the squares may require.
7. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) † vice-door, -foot; (sense 3) † vice-candlestick, -hasp, -nail, -pin, -turcas; (sense 5) vice-bench, -block, -board, -end, jaw, -leg, -maker, -pin, -post, -screw, etc.; † vice-arch (see quot.); vice-hand (see quot.; in mod. use = next); vice-man, a workman who manipulates a vice (cf. quots.). Also VICE-LIKE a.2
Also vice-cap, -clamp, -press (Knight, 1875–84).
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 71. Þere were somtyme buldes wiþ *vice arches and fontes [v.r. voutes] in þe manere of Rome [L. Romano more cocleata].
1850. Weale, Dict. Terms, *Vice-bench, the bench to which a vice is fixed.
1895. Model Steam Engine, 94. *Vice Blocks.—Of various sizes, shapes, and patterns, used as supports upon which to bend tubes.
1808. A. Scott, Poems, 140. An’ Vulcan loud, wi’ squeakin clang, Was at the *vice-board rispin Fu’ soon that day.
1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 176. *Vice candlesticks xii. xii s. Ibid. (1576–7), 263. vj vice-candlestickes at xijd the peece, vjs.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., I. Mâchoires d’Etau,… *Vice-chops, or the Chops of a Vice.
1354. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 91. In mercede … reparantis serur, et claves del *Vicedores in ecclesia.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 29. Seynt Marie preest to haue a keye of my cost of the vys dore goyng vp to the candilbem.
1501. Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 125. A Key … for ye fyce door.
1512–3. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 281. Nayles for þe garnettes on the vyse dore in the steple.
1875. Carpentry & Join., 35. At the left hand or *vice-end of the bench.
1533. in E. Law, Hampton Crt. Pal. (1885), 343. The dore at the *vyce fote goyng up to the bartyllmentes of the haull.
1644. Bulwer, Chiron., 76. The *Vice-hand or Thumb, extended out with the Eare-Finger.
1612. in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 332. *Vice haspes the dozen, xii s.
1793–4. Matthews’s Bristol Directory Austin, Aaron, Clock and *Vice-maker, Old-market.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Vice-maker, a manufacturer of iron vices.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 179. The business of the *vice-man is to file and smooth the work from the rough marks of the hammer, to fit joints, and finish screw-bolts and nuts.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Vice-men, smiths whose work is at the vice instead of the anvil.
1488–92. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 85. A grete *vice nail maid of siluer. Ibid. (1501), II. 26. For mending of ane vice nale of the Kingis cowp that was brokin.
1622. F. Markham, Bk. War, I. ix. 34. His screwes, with which he shall unloose euery *vice-pinne or engine about the musquet.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 353/2. They neither want Vice-Pins nor Scourers.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. vii. 28. The Hole for the Vice-pin.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 145. The vice-pin intended to be screwed … is placed in the stock. Ibid., 146. A very simple machine used for cutting *vice-screws.
1549–50. Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887), 58. The gret scheris, ane taingis, ane *vice turkes.
