SG Heritage Dictionary

Vice [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Properly, a spot or defect; a fault; a blemish; as the vices of a political constitution.

2. In ethics, any voluntary action or course of conduct which deviates from the rules of moral rectitude, or from the plain rules of propriety; any moral unfitness of conduct, either from defect of duty, or from the transgression of known principles of rectitude. vice differs from crime, in being less enormous. We never call murder or robbery a vice; but every act of intemperance, all falsehood, duplicity, deception, lewdness and the like, is a vice The excessive indulgence of passions and appetites which in themselves are innocent, is a vice The smoking of tobacco and the taking of snuff, may in certain cases be innocent and even useful, but these practices may be carried to such an excess as to become vices. This word is also used to denote a habit of transgressing; as a life of vice vice is rarely a solitary invader; it usually brings with it a frightful train of followers.

3. Depravity or corruption of manners; as an age of vice

4. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway.

5. The post of honor is a private station.

6. A fault or bad trick in a horse.

7. The fool or punchinello of old shows.

8. His face made of brass, like a vice in a game.

9. An iron press. [This should be written vise.]

10. A gripe or grasp. [Not in use.]

Vice [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To draw by a kind of violence. [Not in use. See Vise .]

2. VICE , Latin vice in the turn or place, is used in composition to denote one qui vicem gerit, who acts in the place of another, or is second in authority.

Vice [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse.

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.

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.

4. A kind of instrument for holding work, as in filing. Same as Vise.

5. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.

6. A gripe or grasp.

Vice [Preposition] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. In the place of; in the stead; as, A. B. was appointed postmaster vice C. D. resigned.

2. 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 [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To hold or squeeze with a vice, or as if with a vice.

Vice-admiral [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. In the navy, the second officer in command. His flag is displayed at the fore top-gallant-mast head.

2. A civil officer in Great Britain, appointed by the lords commissioners of the admiralty, for exercising admiralty jurisdiction within their respective districts.

Vice-admiralty [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

The office of a vice-admiralty; a vice-admiralty court.

Vice-agent [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

One who acts in the place of another.

Vice-chamberlain [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

An officer in court, next in command to the lord chamberlain.

Vice-chancellor [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

An officer in a university in England, a distinguished member, who is annually elected to manage the affairs in the absence of the chancellor.

Vice-consul [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

One who acts in the place of a consul.

Vice-doge [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A counsellor at Venice, who represents the doge when sick or absent.

Vice-legate [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

An officer employed by the pope to perform the office of spiritual and temporal governor in certain cities, when there is no legate or cardinal to command there.

Vice-president [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

s as z. An officer next in rank below a president.

Vice-regal [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Of or pertaining to a viceroy or viceroyalty.

Viced [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Vitious; corrupt. [Not in use.]

Viced [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Vicious; corrupt.

Viced [Imperfect tense and past participle] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Vice

Vicegerency [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

The office of a vicegerent; agency under another; deputed power; lieutenancy.

Vicegerency [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The office of a vicegerent.

Vicegerent [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Having or exercising delegated power; acting by substitution, or in the place of another.

Vicegerent [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A lieutenant; a vicar; an officer who is deputed by a superior or by proper authority to exercise the powers of another. Kings are sometimes called God's vicegerents. It is to be wished they would always deserve the appellation.

Vicegerent [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Having or exercising delegated power; acting by substitution, or in the place of another.

2. Having or exercising delegated power; acting by substitution, or in the place of another.

Vicegerent [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

An officer who is deputed by a superior, or by proper authority, to exercise the powers of another; a lieutenant; a vicar.

Viceman [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A smith who works at the vice instead of at the anvil.

Vicemen [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Viceman

Vicenary [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Belonging to twenty.

Vicenary [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Of or pertaining to twenty; consisting of twenty.

Vicennial [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Lasting or comprising twenty years.

2. Happening once in twenty years; as, a vicennial celebration.

Vicente Encyclopedia Britannica

VICENTE, Gil (c. 1470- c . 1536), Portuguese dramatist, with an honourable position also in the history of Spanish literature, was born, most probably in Lisbon, about the year 1470. He was of good family, and, after studying law at the then university of Lisbon, became attached to the royal court, in what capacity is unknown. In June 1502 he produced and took the leading part in the performance of his first piece, a kind of dramatic pastoral, after the manner of Juan de la Encina, on occasion of the birth of an heir to the throne (John III.). So successful was this appearance that he soon became the recognized provider of such entertainments at court, during the reign both of Emmanuel and of John. Of his domestic history nothing is known, except that he married a lady named Branca Bezerra, by whom he had a son and a daughter. His outward circumstances, especially in his later years, if some apparently personal allusions in his works are to be literally interpreted, do not seem to have been prosperous. Almost the only personal incident that has come down to us is his successful remonstrance with the clergy of Santarem in 1531, for having taken the earthquakes of that year as a text from which to rouse orthodox fanaticism against the Jews or “Neo-Christians”; the circumstances are related by Vicente in a letter to the king. The time and place of his death are alike uncertain; most probably it occurred at Evora not much later than 1536....

Vicente published various of his pieces during his lifetime, but the first collected edition of his works, edited by his son Luis, did not appear till 1562. It is in black letter folio, and only one copy, that in the Gottingen university library, is now known to exist. A second edition, “emended by the Holy Office,” appeared in 1585, of which also only a single copy is now extant (in Lisbon). The disfavour with which they were viewed by the Inquisition caused them to fall into unmerited neglect, and they do not appear to have been again reprinted till 1834, when they were carefully edited by Feio and Monteiro (Hamburg, 3 vols.). They number forty-two in all, of which seventeen are written wholly in Portuguese and ten wholly in Spanish, while in the remainder both languages are employed. The principles determining his choice of language are not easy to discover, and indeed he seems to have used either indifferently, perhaps in this accommodating himself to the aptitudes of particular actors. It may be observed, however, that, while in the 14th century it had been fashionable for all court poets in the western half of the peninsula to use Galician or Old Portuguese, the practice had changed in the days of John II. of Castile, when Castilian became the favourite speech. In writing chiefly in Portuguese Vicente thus reverted to the older practice; but, on the other hand, it is not surprising that he should have freely used Spanish at a court which stood in such intimate personal relations with that of Castile (of Emmanuel’s three wives two were Castilian princesses and the third was a sister of Charles V. ), and where he had taken Encina as his avowed model. According to their form the works of Vicente are conveniently divided into—(1) obras de devoçao or autos, (2) comedies and tragi-comedies, and (3) farces. The first class includes twelve autos or sacred pieces, intended for performance at Christmas, Epiphany, and other religious festivals. The plots are quaint and conceived entirely in the mediaeval spirit; in their working out many touches of poetical feeling and also of sarcastic humour are introduced. There is a vein of pleasing romance in such compositions as his Dom Duardos and Amadis de Gaula, while the genuine mirthfulness of his farces {Inez Pereira and others), as well as their originality, well entitle him to be spoken of by his compatriots as their “father of comedy” and the national Plautus.

Some typical examples of Vicente’s works may be read in Böhl von Faber’s Teatro Espanοl anterior á Lope de Vega (Hamburg, 1832) and in Ochoa’s Tesoro del Teatro Español (Paris, 1838). An interesting essay, with analyses of many of the plays, occurs in vol. lxxix. of the Quarterly Review (1846-47); see also Ferdinand Wolf's article “Gil-Vicente” in Ersch and Gruber’s Encykl. (sec. i. vol. lxvii.).

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 24, p. 209
[746 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]

Vicenza Encyclopedia Britannica

VICENZA, a town of Italy, capital of the province of Vicenza, lies at the northern base of the Monti Berici, on both sides of the Bacchiglione, immediately below its confluence with the Retrone, and 42 miles by rail to the west of Venice. It is surrounded by somewhat dilapidated walls, about 3 miles in circumference, and entered by six gates. Though many of the streets are narrow and irregular, the town has a number of fine public buildings, many of them the work of Palladio ( q.v.). Among these are the town-hall, otherwise known as the Basilica, one of the finest works of the Renaissance period, of which Palladio himself said that it might stand comparison with the similar work of antiquity. The prefecture and the Barbarano and Chieregati Palaces are also his work; in the last-named the civic museum is housed. The Olympic theatre is also noteworthy. The cathedral, which is Gothic, dating mainly from the 13th century, consists of a nave with eight chapels on each side; it contains examples of the Montagnas and of Lorenzo da Venezia. Several of the other churches contain noteworthy paintings: thus the Romano-Gothic church of San Lorenzo has Montagnas, S. Corona Montagnas and a G. Bellini, and S. Stephano one of the most important works of Palma Vecchio. The principal square contains two columns, dating from the Venetian period, and a tall Gothic campanile. Of the Palladian villas in the neighbourhood La Rotonda or Villa Palladiana, 1½ miles to the south-east, deserves special mention. Vicenza is the see of a bishop, and contains two gymnasia, a seminary, an academy, a public library, a botanic garden, and various hospitals. Some remains of antiquity, including ruins of a theatre and an aqueduct, have been preserved. The most important manufacture is that of silk, which ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 24, p. 210
[483 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]