Meaning

(ambitransitive) To profane or violate the sacredness or sanctity of something..

Definitions by Sense

1. (ambitransitive) To profane or violate the sacredness or sanctity of something.
2. (transitive) To remove the consecration from someone or something; to deconsecrate.
3. (transitive) To change in an inappropriate and destructive manner.
4. (rare) Desecrated.

Example Sentences

It's reform -- reform! You're going to 'turn over a new leaf,' and all that, and sign the pledge, and quit cigars, and go to work, and pay your debts, and gravitate back into Sunday-school, where you can make love to the preacher's daughter under the guise of religion, and desecrate the sanctity of the innermost pale of the church by confessions at Class of your 'thorough conversion'!

Tonight nothing is too sacred, we desecrate and live in sin

A subsequent owner has desecrated the main hall and robbed it of its grandeur by putting in a floor just beneath the circular windows in order to make an upper room over the hall.

Everything a living animal could do to destroy and to desecrate bed and walls had been done. […] A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.

Here are the very nooks where the unwashed most abound—here are the temples most desecrate.

Word Forms

• desecrates
• desecrating
• desecrated
• more desecrate
• most desecrate

Synonyms for desecrate

Antonyms for desecrate

Related Words

When Should You Use Desecrate?

Use desecrate when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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