VICE

Definitions

1. 1. A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse. Withouten vice of syllable or letter. Chaucer. Mark the vice of the procedure. Sir W. Hamilton.
2. 2. A moral fault or failing; especially, immoral conduct or habit, as in the indulgence of degrading appetites; customary deviation in a single respect, or in general, from a right standard, implying a defect of natural character, or the result of training and habits; a harmful custom; immorality; depravity; wickedness; as, a life of vice; the vice of intemperance. I do confess the vices of my blood. Shak. Ungoverned appetite . . . a brutish vice. Milton. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station. Addison.
3. 3. The buffoon of the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice, sometimes of another, or of Vice itself; -- called also Iniquity.