Profane \Pro*fane"\, a. [F., fr. L. profanus, properly, before
the temple, i. e., without the temple, unholy; pro before +
fanum temple. See 1st Fane.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity;
unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than
sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or
inspired; as, a profane place. "Profane authors." --I.
Disraeli.
[1913 Webster]
The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine.
--Gibbon.
[1913 Webster]
2. Unclean; impure; polluted; unholy.
[1913 Webster]
Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things.
--Sir W.
Raleigh.
[1913 Webster]
3. Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect,
irreverence, or undue familiarity; irreverent; impious.
Hence, specifically; Irreverent in language; taking the
name of God in vain; given to swearing; blasphemous; as, a
profane person, word, oath, or tongue. --1 Tim. i. 9.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Secular; temporal; worldly; unsanctified; unhallowed;
unholy; irreligious; irreverent; ungodly; wicked;
godless; impious. See Impious.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Profane \Pro*fane"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Profaned; p. pr. &
vb. n. Profaning.] [L. profanare: cf. F. profaner. See
Profane, a.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse,
irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to
pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the
Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.
[1913 Webster]
The priests in the temple profane the sabbath.
--Matt. xii.
5.
[1913 Webster]
2. To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base
employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.
[1913 Webster]
So idly to profane the precious time. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
profane
adj 1: characterized by profanity or cursing; "foul-mouthed and
blasphemous"; "blue language"; "profane words" [syn: blasphemous,
blue]
2: not sacred or concerned with religion; "sacred and profane
music"; "children being brought up in an entirely profane
environment" [ant: sacred]
3: not holy because unconsecrated or impure or defiled [syn: unconsecrated,
unsanctified]
4: grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred;
"blasphemous rites of a witches' Sabbath"; "profane
utterances against the Church"; "it is sacrilegious to
enter with shoes on" [syn: blasphemous, sacrilegious]
v 1: corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch
the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was
accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors
subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: corrupt,
pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch,
debase, vitiate, deprave, misdirect]
2: violate the sacred character of a place or language;
"desecrate a cemetary"; "violate the sanctity of the
church"; "profane the name of God" [syn: desecrate, outrage,
violate]
WordNet (r) 2.0
149 Moby Thesaurus words for "profane":
Fescennine, Philistine, Rabelaisian, abuse, abusive, apostate,
atheistic, backsliding, bad, bawdy, befoul, blasphemous, blue,
calumniatory, calumnious, carnal, carnal-minded, coarse,
comminatory, commit sacrilege, common, contaminate, contemptuous,
contumelious, convert, corrupt, cursing, damnatory, debase,
defalcate, defile, defiled, degrade, denunciatory, desecrate,
dirty, disbelieving, dishonor, disrespectful, divert, dysphemistic,
earthly, earthy, embezzle, epithetic, ethnic, excommunicative,
excommunicatory, execratory, fallen, fallen from grace, filthy,
fleshly, foul, foul-mouthed, fulminatory, gentile, godless,
heathen, idolatrous, immodest, impious, imprecatory, improper,
impure, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, infidel, infidelic,
iniquitous, irreligious, irreverent, lapsed, lay, low,
maladminister, maledictory, material, materialistic, misapply,
misappropriate, misemploy, mishandle, mismanage, misuse, mundane,
nasty, naughty, nonsacred, obscene, off color, pagan, peculate,
pervert, pilfer, pollute, profanatory, prostitute, raunchy, raw,
recidivist, recidivistic, recreant, renegade, reprobate, ribald,
risque, sacrilegious, scatologic, scurrile, scurrilous, secular,
sinful, smutty, taboo, taint, temporal, terrestrial, the fleshly,
the mundane, the profane, the secular, the temporal, the unholy,
the worldly, tref, unbelieving, unblessed, unclean, uncouth,
undutiful, ungodly, unhallowed, unholy, unmentionable, unprintable,
unregenerate, unsacred, unsanctified, unspiritual, venomous, vile,
violate, vitiate, vituperative, vulgar, wicked, worldly
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
PROFANE. That which has not been consecrated. By a profane place is
understood one which is neither sacred, nor sanctified, nor religious. Dig.
11, 7, 2, 4. Vide Things.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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