iniquity
    n 1: absence of moral or spiritual values; "the powers of
         darkness" [syn: iniquity, wickedness, darkness,
         dark]
    2: morally objectionable behavior [syn: evil, immorality,
       wickedness, iniquity]
    3: an unjust act [syn: injustice, unfairness, iniquity,
       shabbiness]

Iniquity \In*iq"ui*ty\, n.; pl. Iniquities. [OE. iniquitee, F.
   iniquit['e], L. iniquitas, inequality, unfairness, injustice.
   See Iniquous.]
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   1. Absence of, or deviation from, just dealing; lack of
      rectitude or uprightness; gross injustice;
      unrighteousness; wickedness; as, the iniquity of bribery;
      the iniquity of an unjust judge.
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            Till the world from his perfection fell
            Into all filth and foul iniquity.     --Spenser.
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   2. An iniquitous act or thing; a deed of injustice or
      unrighteousness; a sin; a crime. --Milton.
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            Your iniquities have separated between you and your
            God.                                  --Is. lix. 2.
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   3. A character or personification in the old English
      moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of
      one vice and sometimes of another. See Vice.
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            Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit
            Of miming gets the opinion of a wit.  --B. Jonson.
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Vice \Vice\ (v[imac]s), 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.
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            Withouten vice of syllable or letter. --Chaucer.
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            Mark the vice of the procedure.       --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.
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   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.
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            I do confess the vices of my blood.   --Shak.
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            Ungoverned appetite . . . a brutish vice. --Milton.
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            When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
            The post of honor is a private station. --Addison.
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   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.
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   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.
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               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.
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   Syn: Crime; sin; iniquity; fault. See Crime.
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INIQUITY. Vice; contrary to equity; injustice. 
     2. Where, in a doubtful matter, the judge is required to pronounce, it 
is his duty to decide in such a manner as is the least against equity.