(v. t.) The act of violating sacred things, or of treating them with contempt or irreverence; irreverent or too familiar treatment or use of what is sacred; desecration; as, the profanation of the Sabbath; the profanation of a sanctuary; the profanation of the name of God.
(v. t.) The act of treating with abuse or disrespect, or with undue publicity, or lack of delicacy.
Example Sentences:
(1) Perhaps he modified his language for the NY Times reporter, but the more likely explanation is that his swearing added nothing and was therefore omitted by the writer or edited out; in America, even in liberal New York, profanities still need to be argued into print.
(2) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
(3) Throughout his life, Dad observed the rule that profanity – effing and blinding as he called it – should be confined to workplaces and other all-male venues where men gathered outside the earshot of women and children.
(4) McQueen told this tale several times – the words varied from “McQueen was here” to more profane messages, between tellings – and so, years later, Anderson & Sheppard asked the prince’s valet for the suits of that era back, in order to examine the linings.
(5) The phychological aspects of language show an antithesis between learned and profane languages.
(6) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
(7) "Not just because it's wrong to expect officers to endure profanities, but it's also because of the experience of the culprits.
(8) Here, in the profane world of anti-music, I could be a hater and say: "This is where the rock'n'roll dream dies.
(9) This research examined 160 college students' impressions of an audiotape of a female counselor who used profanity with either a male or female client who did or did not use profanity.
(10) Inside the cinema-like forum, all was concentrated silence punctuated by an occasional profanity or a murmur of "My God, North lied all along" from the readers.
(11) Effects of counselor's profanity and subject's religiosity on acquisition of lecture content and behavioral compliance were investigated.
(12) She was praised by many but also criticised harshly as a result of this exhibition, as her unapologetic nudity was seen by many as downright profane.
(13) You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence.
(14) One profanity-ridden post concluded with: "John Oliver told me to do this."
(15) Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are a totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology,” writes Paul Schrader in his landmark book, Transcendental Style in Film, in which he isolates two strains of religious film-making: the epics of Cecil B DeMille, presenting religion as spectacle, with teeming hordes, VistaVision, shafts of light, and strangely subdued orgies.
(16) She was roundly abused and Lord Carrington , the Economist and many others told her she was being profane.
(17) "It has mad amounts of violence, blood and profanity, and no shortage of racist and homophobic things.
(18) Boehner and his staff gamely tried to fend off both the specter of a shutdown and a leadership challenge from his caucus’ more belligerent culture warriors – as late as yesterday, a Boehner spokesman was assuring the press that the battle-tested speaker “wasn’t going anywhere.” No doubt, however, that a cursory look at the long train of sober spiritual leaders in his caucus lining up to deliver pointless CSPAN tantrums over the outrages of science prompted the longtime Ohio Congressman to mutter some variant of Good Lord, not this again together with a few well-chosen profanities for good measure.
(19) Cultural comprehensions and spirit of time are registered in numerous sacred and profane monuments of art.
(20) A profanity-strewn squabble with bewildered old John Motson was trotted out; Fergie time; the hairdryer treatment; the intimidation of some match officials; the trackside battles with Wenger and Benitez.
Sacrilege
Definition:
(n.) 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.
Example Sentences:
(1) The organisation, whose name means "non-Islamic education is sacrilege", is fighting to impose a strict interpretation of sharia law across Africa's most populous country.
(2) Devout Muslims consider it a sacrilege for infidels to depose a Muslim tyrant and occupy Muslim lands — no matter how well intentioned the infidels or malevolent the tyrant.
(3) Responsible for close to 200 deaths so far this year, Boko Haram, whose name means "Non-Islamic Education is sacrilege", wants to extend sharia law – already in place in some northern states – across Nigeria's 160 million-strong population, which is evenly split between Muslim and Christian.
(4) Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is sacrilege" in Hausa, wants to implement strict Sharia law and avenge the deaths of Muslims in communal violence across Nigeria , a multi-ethnic nation of more than 160 million people split largely into a Christian south and Muslim north.
(5) Boko Haram, which means "western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, wants to implement strict sharia law and avenge the deaths of Muslims in communal violence across Nigeria , a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people split largely into a Christian south and Muslim north.
(6) Furthermore, some people seem to think that hip-hop is supposed to be a serious thing and treating it humorously is sacrilege.
(7) Madonna review – mistress of sex, sacrilege and stairs Read more Bishop Dunn’s condemnation followed a complaint made by the archbishop of Singapore when the Rebel Heart tour stopped there last month.
(8) Critics regard the very suggestion that there is a way to take CO2 out of the air, reversing fossil-fuel pollution, as sacrilege.
(9) Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is sacrilege", is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to Associated Press.
(10) But dropping a bomb on a football stadium … sacrilege!
(11) Whisky, you have to wait years.” He fetched coffee – “Sacrilege, really, but there are times when only caffeine will do” – followed by a glass of the seasonal brew (Santa Paws; made with plums, dates, mixed fruit and a hint of star anise; unexpectedly drinkable).
(12) "It seems inadmissible that an international cultural evening, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by police to apprehend him," the directors said as they decried the sacrilege.
(13) Some critics question whether a six-minute horse dance to music is really sport but dressage lovers pour scorn on such sacrilege.
(14) It's freezing Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new Sacrilege video , features Lily Cole copulating with an entire town: men, women in stockings, a vicar, all the usual suspects.
(15) We've been accused of sacrilege, of displaying a certain amount of brass neck in reworking something so revered as The Ladykillers.
(16) The table on which it was signed is locked away in a storeroom at Belfast City Hall, having been rescued from council workmen who committed the near sacrilege of mixing cement on it.
(17) There were people who sought to "justify and downplay this sacrilege", he said.
(18) Since glorious Technicolor, pretty much, the idea of a woman with wit has been cinematic sacrilege.
(19) As acts of sacrilege in South Africa go, it's hard to beat.