Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Vice \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}.

   Note: 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}.

Vice \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 \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 \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 \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-l['e]gat], 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-pr['e]sident], an officer next
      in rank below a president.

Source : WordNet®

vice
     n 1: moral weakness [syn: {frailty}]
     2: a specific form of evildoing; "vice offends the moral
        standards of the community"