Vice (?), a. [Cf. F. vice-. See Vice,
prep.]
Denoting one who in certain cases may assume the office or duties of a superior; designating an officer or an
office that is second in
rank or authority; as, vice president; vice agent; vice consul, etc.
Vice admiral. [Cf.
F. vice-amiral.] (a) An officer holding rank next below an admiral. By the existing laws, the rank of admiral and vice admiral in the United
States Navy will cease at the
death of the present incumbents.
(b) A civil officer, in Great Britain, appointed by the lords commissioners of the admiralty for exercising admiralty jurisdiction within their respective
districts. -- Vice admiralty, the office of a vice admiral. -- Vice-admiralty court, a court with admiralty jurisdiction, established by
authority of Parliament in British possessions beyond the seas. Abbott. -- Vice chamberlain,
an officer in court next
in rank to the lord chamberlain. [Eng.] - - Vice chancellor.
(a) (Law)
An officer next in rank
to a chancellor. (b) An officer in a
university, chosen to perform certain duties, as the conferring of degrees, in the absence of the chancellor.
(c) (R. C. Ch.) The cardinal at the head of the Roman Chancery. -- Vice consul [cf. F. vice- consul], a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consul. -- Vice king, one who acts in
the place of a king; a viceroy. -- Vice legate [cf. F. vice-légat], a legate second in rank to, or acting in place of, another legate. -- Vice presidency, the office of
vice president. --
Vice president [cf.
F. vice-président],
an officer next in rank
below a president.
||Vi"ce (?), prep. [L.,
abl. of vicis change, turn. See Vicarious.]
In the place of;
in the stead; as, A. B. was appointed postmaster vice C. D. resigned.
Vice , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Viced (?); p. pr. & vb.
n. Vicing (?).]
To hold or squeeze with a vice, or as if with a vice. Shak.
The coachman's hand was viced between his upper and
lower thigh.
De Quincey.
Vice , n. [See Vise.]
1. (Mech.) A kind of instrument for holding work, as in filing.
Same as Vise.
2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for
casements. [Written also vise.]
3. A gripe or grasp. [Obs.] Shak.
Vice (?), n. [F., from L.
vitium.]
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. 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. 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.
&fist; This character was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, and
was armed with a dagger
of lath: one
of his chief employments was to make sport
with the Devil, leaping on his back, and belaboring him with the dagger of lath till he
made him roar. The Devil, however, always carried him off in the end. Nares.
How like you the Vice in the
play?
. . . I would not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at everybody.
B.
Jonson. Syn. -- Crime; sin; iniquity; fault. See Crime.
Hear it pronounced