Sacrilege

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sacrilege \Sac"ri*lege\, n. [F. sacril[`e]ge, L. sacrilegium,
     from sacrilegus that steals, properly, gathers or picks up,
     sacred things; sacer sacred + legere to gather, pick up. See
     {Sacred}, and {Legend}.]
     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.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           And the hid treasures in her sacred tomb
           With sacrilege to dig.                   --Spenser.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Families raised upon the ruins of churches, and
           enriched with the spoils of sacrilege.   --South.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sacrilege
       n : blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its
           sacred character; "desecration of the Holy Sabbath" [syn:
            {profanation}, {desecration}, {blasphemy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "sacrilege":
     abomination, abuse, atrocity, befouling, befoulment,
     blasphemousness, blasphemy, contamination, crime, debasement,
     defilement, desecration, disgrace, dishonoring, disrespect,
     fouling, heresy, ignominy, impiety, impiousness, infamy,
     irreverence, maltreatment, misuse, offense, outrage, perversion,
     pity, profanation, profaneness, profanity, prostitution,
     sacrilegiousness, scandal, secularization, shame, sin,
     terrible thing, violation, vitiation