vice

Other forms: vices

A vice is a moral failing or a bad habit. Lying and cheating are both forms of vice.

In the United States, municipal police departments often have a bureau dedicated to vice, manned by vice cops, whose job it is to fight crime related to alcohol, drugs, and gambling. But anything can be a vice, as long as there's someone out there who views it as bad behavior or a moral weakness. You might say, casually, "Chocolate ice cream is my vice. I eat it every day."

Definitions of vice

1. noun

   a specific form of evildoing
   “vice offends the moral standards of the community”

   types:

   gambling, gaming, play

   the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize)

   intemperance, intemperateness

   consumption of alcoholic drinks

   sporting life

   active interest in gambling on sports events

   bet, wager

   the act of gambling

   gambling game, game of chance

   a game that involves gambling

   boozing, crapulence, drink, drinking, drunkenness

   the act of drinking alcoholic beverages to excess

   throw

   casting an object in order to determine an outcome randomly

   type of:

   evildoing, transgression

   the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
2. noun

   moral weakness
   synonyms: frailty

   type of:

   evil, evilness

   the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice