How to Use desecrate in a Sentence

desecrate

verb
  • The vandals were accused of desecrating graves.
  • One stone in one cemetery being desecrated is one stone too many.
    — Newsweek, 2 June 2016
  • One stone in one cemetery being desecrated is one stone too many.
    — Newsweek, 28 Apr. 2017
  • Those are the kinds of things that can't be broken into or taken away or desecrated.
    — Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 6 June 2026
  • During that time, our home, and the last of our things in it, could continue to be desecrated.
    — Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 6 June 2026
  • Many of its windows had been shattered and its treasures ripped out or desecrated.
    — National Geographic, 15 Apr. 2019
  • Celebrate the city/land, don't desecrate it.
    — ABC News, 18 May 2026
  • In ’87, his tomb was desecrated; his hands were stolen and held for a ransom that was never paid.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2019
  • The hallways of the seat of government would not have trashed and desecrated with human waste.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 22 Jan. 2025
  • When a dozen of the gravestones are desecrated, a corporate agenda may be at work.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 20 May 2024
  • The pipeline is taking that away from us, taking away from our [rice] beds that have already been desecrated.
    — Rosalie Chan, Teen Vogue, 18 Sep. 2017
  • In the wake of the furore, Ho’s office was ransacked and his parents’ graves desecrated.
    — Time Staff, Time, 6 Nov. 2019
  • Steer people who may be enraged away from actions that could desecrate the memory of the deceased.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Oct. 2019
  • Issac tried not to do anything that would desecrate Shabbos for the rest of the family.
    — Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2020
  • The plan to keep the site a secret is based on concerns about relic hunters and others who might desecrate a war grave, officials said.
    — al, 23 Aug. 2021
  • Some Native Hawaiians say the project will desecrate sacred land.
    — Washington Post, 16 July 2019
  • Sometime after burial, the grave was desecrated and all the bones removed except those of the lower legs.
    — Franz Lidz, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2023
  • Southern Nevada also dissolved – in a trail of debt and desecrated body parts.
    — Author: Brian Grow, John Shiffman, Alaska Dispatch News, 24 Oct. 2017
  • The homage had people, well, hot, as if Choppa had just desecrated someone’s headstone.
    — Alex Suskind, Vulture, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Public monuments and art were desecrated all over the country.
    — Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 3 Dec. 2025
  • The bodies of the protesters that Caesar saw that day had been desecrated by soldiers, though the dead did have names.
    — Susie Linfield, The New York Review of Books, 9 Feb. 2019
  • Robb's body was desecrated by the Freys after the Red Wedding.
    — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Mar. 2019
  • This week, Maduro desecrated that people’s lore like a dog hiking his hind leg over a Caracas fire hydrant.
    — Tim Padgett, Orlando Sentinel, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Some of the vignettes are creepy and comical, like one with two pig demons guarding a church door while cat demons go about their business of desecrating the altar.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Goddess of fire, Pele, is believed to live on Kilauea volcano, and the plant itself is thought to desecrate her name.
    — Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 23 May 2018
  • Goddess of fire, Pele, is believed to live on Kilauea volcano, and the plant itself is thought to desecrate her name.
    — Jae C. Hong and Sophia Yan, chicagotribune.com, 22 May 2018
  • But when Vittoria is found dead and desecrated, Emilia’s need for answers and vengeance eclipses all else.
    — Alyssa Davis, Vulture, 29 Mar. 2024
  • In the world of Monster, a person who takes lives and desecrates corpses might someday be capable of redemption.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Hundreds of Muslim men knocked down the walls, desecrated the nave, burned copies of the Bible, and set fire to the furniture.
    — Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Aug. 2023
  • By the time Elgin’s men arrived, the Parthenon had been occupied, desecrated and burned.
    — William Booth, Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desecrate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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