Other forms: desecrated, desecrating, desecrates
To desecrate is to treat a sacred place with violent disrespect. Desecrate a grave, desecrate the temple, desecrated by vandals.
It is the opposite of consecrate, which is exactly how the word was built. What counts as sacred is broader than religion: people say a war memorial was desecrated and everybody understands the charge.
1verbdesecrateTo treat a sacred place with violent disrespect.
“Vandals desecrated the church by spraying paint on the altar.”
desecrate is a damaging.
De-, an undoing, plus the stem of consecrate, from Latin sacer, sacred.
From de- + stem of consecrate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA