as in violated
to treat (a sacred place or object) shamefully or with great disrespect
vandals desecrated the cemetery last night by covering the tombstones with graffiti
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Recent Examples of desecrated
Officials determined that a total of 26 underground vaults and mausoleums were broken into or desecrated from November 2025 until the day Gerlach was caught.
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Alexandra Simon, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026
In 1993, White Supremacists in Billings desecrated a Jewish cemetery, sent bomb threats to a synagogue and threw a brick at a menorah in the window of a five-year-old Jewish boy.
—David Goldman, CNN Money, 16 Dec. 2025
Public monuments and art were desecrated all over the country.
—Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 3 Dec. 2025
Never in the storied history of MomTok have the core brand values been this desecrated.
—Olivia Crandall, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
Trump’s order also directs administration officials to terminate or revoke visas if foreign nationals are found to have desecrated the flag.
—Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill, 17 Sep. 2025
When Melanson failed to comply with Lino’s instructions, Lino allegedly beat the older man with a baseball bat and then desecrated his corpse.
—Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desecrated
violated
Verb
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The addition of those provisions, the lawsuit argues, violated a requirement in the Missouri Constitution that laws only deal with one subject.—
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The lawsuit argues the freeze violated federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional limits on executive power and how Congress appropriates funds.—
Cite this Entry
“Desecrated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desecrated. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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