vice squad
3
5.6
- noun
- /vaɪs skwɑd/
- NSFW
:
unidad de delitos de vicio
- Here in New York City today, vice squad police began cracking down on pornography.
- call the vice squad
Examples
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But suddenly, the next day, the door swings open and vice squad officers from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department come blasting in there.
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I'm turning your file over to the vice squad.
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Are you with the vice squad?
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My father said if you got caught by the vice squad, you could lose everything.
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That pal of yours from the vice squad wants you to call him.
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Listen, McCarthy, if you don't get out of here, I'm gonna call the vice squad.
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Business owners in Old City are outraged days after Philadelphia's vice squad busts a prostitution ring in a basement apartment near Third and Chestnut Street, arresting three women.
Blog text (16) -
In an effort to reduce illegal activities, the vice squad conducted a series of undercover operations throughout the city.
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The mayor praised the vice squad for their swift actions in shutting down several illegal gambling establishments.
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After weeks of gathering evidence, the vice squad finally arrested several suspects involved in human trafficking.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally built from 'vice' (immoral behaviour/bad habit) + 'squad' (small unit/team), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer a team dealing with vices — i.e. a police unit addressing immoral/criminal behaviours. This noun–noun compounding is a common and cross-linguistic pattern, making the meaning predictable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
The noun vice squad comes from police work: vice meant 'wrong or illegal acts' such as gambling or prostitution, and a squad is a small group of officers, so a vice squad is a team set up to find and stop those acts.