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  1. desecrate love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To violate the sacredness of; profane.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To divest of sacred or hallowed character or office; divert from a sacred purpose or appropriation; treat with sacrilege; profane; pollute.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To profane or violate the sacredness or sanctity of something.
  2. v. transitive To remove the consecration from someone or something; to deconsecrate.
  3. v. transitive To inappropriately change.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. violate the sacred character of a place or language
  2. v. remove the consecration from a person or an object

Etymologies

  1. From de- + stem of consecrate. (Wiktionary)
  2. de- + (con)secrate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “A standard definition for desecrate is to profane, to abuse, to violate the sacredness of.”

    On “Desecration”

  • “The dictionary won't help me on this; they all define the word desecrate as strictly a religious term that you might apply to the destruction of objects found in a church or synagogue, certainly not to a secular object like an American flag.”

    The issue that will not die

  • “To "desecrate" something it has to be sacred in the first place.”

    Palin hits back at 'malicious' photo

  • “Good stuff except for one major thing: Right or wrong, believing in a 9/11 conspiracy does not "desecrate" the memory of those who died.”

    Tom Matzzie: Memo to Right-Wing Donors -- This is Who You're Getting in Bed With

  • “Also, I think it's interesting that they should use the term "desecrate" in reference to their proposed amendment.”

    Archive 2005-06-01

  • “The definitions for "desecrate" revolve around things that are sacred (i.e. derive their status from religious traditions, not civic or governmental).”

    Archive 2005-06-01

  • “And yeah, there's folks that this is the "very word of a deity" spoken to a guy in Arabia long ago, but if freedom speech and religion means anything, it means the freedom to ridicule, insult, and yes, "desecrate" whatever others think is "holy.”

    Notes in Samsara

  • “There are many Israeli companies that "desecrate" the Sabbath already.”

    IAGblog

  • “A hooligan claiming to be a member of an anti-Scientology group was arrested Wednesday for attempting to "desecrate" the Church of Scientology with a wacky weapon -”

    Religion News Blog

  • “Saudi King Abdullah said Friday his country will not allow anyone to "desecrate" its lands.”

    Eyewitness News

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synonyms (6)

Words with the same meaning

  1. profane
  1. contaminate
  1. defile
  1. unhallow
  1. pollute
  1. violate

antonyms (1)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. consecrate

hypernyms (7)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. assault
  1. assail
  1. attack
  1. Seton
  1. turn
  1. reverse
  1. change by reversal

rhymes (108)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Ate
  2. Cate
  3. Est
  4. Fate
  5. Haight
  6. Iwate
  7. Kate
  8. Kuwait
  9. Nate
  10. Solid-state
  11. State
  12. Sumgait
  13. Tate
  14. Waite
  15. abate
  16. actuate
  17. ate
  18. await
  19. bait
  20. bate
  21. beit
  1. belate
  2. berate
  3. cate
  4. chait
  5. circumnavigate
  6. collate
  7. commutate
  8. conflate
  9. conjugate
  10. crate
  11. create
  12. date
  13. debate
  14. deflate
  15. demodulate
  16. dictate
  17. dilate
  18. eight
  19. elate
  20. equate
  21. est
  1. estate
  2. fait
  3. fate
  4. fete
  5. frate
  6. freight
  7. gait
  8. gate
  9. grate
  10. great
  11. hait
  12. hate
  13. inflate
  14. innate
  15. interrelate
  16. interstate
  17. intrastate
  18. irate
  19. kate
  20. late
  21. lightweight
  1. mate
  2. misstate
  3. multistate
  4. negate
  5. oblate
  6. ornate
  7. overate
  8. overrate
  9. overweight
  10. pate
  11. plait
  12. plate
  13. postdate
  14. predate
  15. procreate
  16. prorate
  17. rate
  18. recreate
  19. recriminate
  20. reflate
  21. reinstate
  1. relate
  2. remunerate
  3. restate
  4. sate
  5. sedate
  6. skate
  7. slate
  8. solid-state
  9. spate
  10. speight
  11. state
  12. straight
  13. strait
  14. streight
  15. tait
  16. trait
  17. translate
  18. underrate
  19. update
  20. upstate
  21. wait
  1. waite
  2. wayt
  3. weight

reverse dictionary (9)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. unconsecrate
  1. unhallow
  1. disconsecrate
  1. dishallow
  1. violate
  1. profanatory
  1. defile
  1. pollute
  1. profane

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. violation
  1. SATWOTD

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Lists

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Comments

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  • quotato Is it possible to desecrate the word desecrate?



    Dec 29, 2008

  • kewpid “Hey Jack, if you desecrate something, is that bad?” — Tracy Jordan
    Dec 3, 2007

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‘desecrate’ has been looked up 3873 times, loved by 2 people, added to 36 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.