Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Desecration, profanation, misuse, or theft of something regarded as sacred.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The violation, desecration, or profanation of sacred things.
- noun In a more specific sense: The alienation to laymen or to common purposes of that which has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses.
- noun The felonious taking of any goods out of any church or chapel.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The sin or crime of violating or profaning sacred things; the alienating to laymen, or to common purposes, what has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
desecration ,profanation ,misuse orviolation of something regarded assacred
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Thwackum was resolved a crime of this kind, which he called sacrilege, should not go unpunished.
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Thwackum was resolved a crime of this kind, which he called sacrilege, should not go unpunished.
IX. Containing an Incident of a More Heinous Kind. Book III 1917
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Thwackum was resolved a crime of this kind, which he called sacrilege, should not go unpunished.
History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding 1730
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Driven by myth [...] horror can only be expressed by and in sacrilege: the impious cults, hideous ceremonies, blasphemous rites elsewhere mentioned, which tell a reverse history of salvation.
Archive 2010-03-01 2010
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Driven by myth [...] horror can only be expressed by and in sacrilege: the impious cults, hideous ceremonies, blasphemous rites elsewhere mentioned, which tell a reverse history of salvation.
Dark Awakenings and Cosmic Horror : The Lovecraft News Network 2010
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Recognition that a Muslim state might commit the ultimate in sacrilege by beheading a person who had been dangled on the Prophet's knee has imbued modern political Shiism with a distrust of the state.
Iran Election Live-Blogging (Thursday June 18) The Huffington Post News Team 2009
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Another example which complements this intra-cultural sacrilege, as a case of cross-cultural sacrilege, is that of the Mohammed cartoons.
The Sacred Domain Hal Duncan 2006
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I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go into this part of the debate because I think sacrilege is something of a separate issue here which complexifies things greatly, so I probably gave the Art and Religion relationship short shrift.
Archive 2006-09-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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So what if we want to argue that this sacrilege is valid?
Archive 2006-09-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go into this part of the debate because I think sacrilege is something of a separate issue here which complexifies things greatly, so I probably gave the Art and Religion relationship short shrift.
The Sacred Domain Hal Duncan 2006
arby commented on the word sacrilege
"Mmmmm, sacrilicious" - Homer Simpson
October 5, 2007