What's the difference between desecrate and destroy?

Desecrate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) 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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, in February described gay lifestyles as perverted and a desecration of human dignity.
  • (2) And Islamist extremists desecrated shrines built by Sufi Muslims and the graves of British soldiers.
  • (3) "We will do everything that we can to remove funding for the Brooklyn museum until the director comes to his senses and realises that if you are a government-subsidised enterprise, then you can't do things that desecrate the most personal and deeply held views of people in society.
  • (4) On Wednesday, Sboui appeared before an investigating judge in Kairouan who is considering the charges; they include public indecency, desecrating a cemetery and belonging to a band of malefactors seeking to damage public property.
  • (5) But what can be done to halt this desecration is less obvious.
  • (6) There were shouts of "shame" from the Tory benches when John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said that Britain should apologise because it had been willing to provide military support to "desecrate" the holiest site in the Sikh faith.
  • (7) Unconscious aggression is unleashed against the Jews, who thus become scapegoats against whom three constantly recurring accusations are levelled: the killing of Christ; the desecration of the Host; and the ritual murder of children.
  • (8) In a letter to a corporation official, Cottam wrote: "Desecration: graffiti have been scratched and painted on to the great west doors of the cathedral, the chapter house door and most notably a sacrilegious message painted on to the restored pillars of the west portico.
  • (9) But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.
  • (10) And cemeteries are desecrated so not even the dead can escape.
  • (11) He once created a metallic artwork decorated with the phrase "I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses" and displayed it on his website.
  • (12) As he was conveniently dead, that box was then moved, for fear of desecration.
  • (13) At least 400 people were killed in the army's infamous Operation Blue Star, which enraged Sikhs who accused the troops of desecrating the shrine.
  • (14) His claims of "desecration" and graffiti on the cathedral, along with details of "human defecation", drug use and general disruption caused by the camp have infuriated protesters, who have interpreted his comments as support for the corporation's eviction attempt.
  • (15) Isis was “intent upon only desecration and destruction” and was murdering innocent people and oppressing and raping women and girls across northern Iraq, Shorten said.
  • (16) These parameters call for “freedom of access to the holy sites consistent with the established status quo”, without recognizing that for 50 years Israeli governments have shredded that status quo, desecrating Muslim cemeteries like Mamilla and Bab al-Rahmeh, demolishing ancient Ummayad buildings discovered south of the Haram, and much else, in the race to dig down to the only strata that matter to nationalist Israeli archaeologists.
  • (17) Certainly these are not words of contrition and the Sun on Sunday so swiftly returning to the fecund bone-yard of gossip, poison and lies indicates that they've learned nothing from the outrage they provoked with their desecration of the dead children of ordinary people.
  • (18) Two members of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) were reportedly entrusted with the burial in an unknown location - chosen to avoid the risk of the grave becoming a shrine for supporters or, more likely, being desecrated by vengeful opponents.
  • (19) Two senior US officers were shot dead inside Kabul's heavily fortified interior ministry on Saturday and at least six others died in street protests as another day of violence convulsed Afghanistan following the desecration of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers.
  • (20) Gross desecration of Catholic or Protestant religious symbols is no longer a sin in America.

Destroy


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish.
  • (v. t.) To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume.
  • (v. t.) To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The measure destroyed the Justice Department’s plans to prosecute whatever Guantánamo detainees it could in federal courts.
  • (2) Whereas the growth and division of normal cells is carefully regulated to meet the needs of the body, tumor cells proliferate autonomously and continually, eventually interfering with and destroying the functions of normal tissue.
  • (3) More evil than Clocky , the alarm clock that rolls away when you reach out to silence it, or the Puzzle Alarm , which makes you complete a simple puzzle before it'll go quiet, the Money Shredding Alarm Clock methodically destroys your cash unless you rouse yourself.
  • (4) Total costs of building the three missile destroyers in Australia will amount to more than $9bn, approximately three times the cost of buying the ships ready made from Spanish company Navantia, The Australian reported on Friday .
  • (5) When allegations of systemic doping and cover-ups first emerged in the runup to the 2013 Russian world athletics championships, an IOC spokesman insisted: “Anti-doping measures in Russia have improved significantly over the last five years with an effective, efficient and new laboratory and equipment in Moscow.” London Olympics were sabotaged by Russia’s doping, report says Read more We now know that the head of that lauded Moscow lab, Grigory Rodchenko, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples in December last year shortly before Wada officials visited.
  • (6) Mortality rates naturally vary considerably, but in earthquakes, for example, the number of deaths per 100 houses destroyed can give an indication of the adequacy of building techniques.
  • (7) Dialyzed crude enzyme extracts from yeast cells were found to destroy diacetyl in a manner quite similar to that of diacetyl reductase from Aerobacter aerogenes, and both the bacterial and the yeast extracts were stimulated significantly by the addition of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH).
  • (8) Macron hit back on Twitter, saying her proposals to take France out of the EU would destroy France’s fishing industry.
  • (9) Part of his initial lump sum will be donated to a fund to replace a hall destroyed by fire in an arson attack four years ago at St Luke’s Church in Newton Poppleford.
  • (10) We report that kainic acid lesions of the posterior corpus striatum, which preferentially spare fibers of passage while destroying striatopallidal neurons, produce a stimulus-sensitive movement pattern in rats that has a highly specific sensory trigger.
  • (11) Spinal cord stimulation would suppress at least the dorsal horn neurons which were destroyed by various kinds of diseases.
  • (12) To overcome these problems we developed methotrexate bone cement (MTX-Palacos) with the aim to obtain high local concentrations of methotrexate in order to destroy remaining tumor cells and avoid systemic side effects.
  • (13) Liposomes of PC10 rapidly destroyed sperm motility while PC12 acrosome-reacted sperm remained motile for several h. Liposomes of PC with greater than or equal to 14-carbon fatty acyl chains had no effect on the AR or motility of sperm.
  • (14) Admirable, but will destroying ivory get that message through to poachers, ivory traffickers and the workshops in east Asia and elsewhere that buy smuggled raw ivory?
  • (15) Surgery of destroyed joints in the hand and wrist in the arthritic patient can be added to the armamentarium of the reconstructive arthritis surgeon.
  • (16) It is that beautiful moment when the original Metamorphosis is destroyed so that it can be refashioned for a global community of readers in dire need of new forms of storytelling.
  • (17) Alfred Liyolo, 71, one of Congo’s leading sculptors , sold several bronzes to the palace in Gbadolite and designed a church and tomb for Mobutu’s first wife; all were lost or destroyed in the looting.
  • (18) A frameshift mutation in the mouse mammary tumor virus myc gene destroyed the dexamethasone stimulation of mr1, indicating that c-myc protein is required for the effect.
  • (19) While cells that were treated with antibody were unable to aggregate because of the inability to destroy cAMP, they aggregated normally when washed free of antibody.
  • (20) It would have to be destroyed four and a half years after initial collection.