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At one point in Frodo’s journey in The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien depicts an ancient statue overlooking a crossroads: “Its head was gone, and in its place was set in mockery a round rough-hewn stone, rudely painted … in the likeness of a grinning face with one large red eye in the midst of its forehead.” The statue had been vandalized by orcs, but the roots of vandalize have more in common with the name of a Tolkien hero. Vandalize comes from the noun vandal, which was originally capitalized and referred to a member of a Germanic people who lived south of the Baltic Sea and sacked Rome in the year 455 CE. This sacking is what likely led to the use of the lower-case vandal for someone who damages or destroys property. The Late Latin word for such a Vandal was Vandalī, a word probably borrowed from a Germanic verb meaning “wend, turn” that also gave rise to the Old English Ēarendel, the name of a mythological figure that inspired Tolkien’s creation of Eärendil, a mariner who wends his way across the sky of Middle Earth carrying the morning star.
Examples of vandalize in a Sentence
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 9 May 2024
Veterans groups were infuriated and saddened after anti-Israel agitators vandalized a World War I monument in New York City this week, prompting city officials to voice scathing criticism of the demonstrators while noting the irony of their right to protest.
—Louis Casiano, Fox News, 8 May 2024
Sometimes people vandalize the water stations, Astroth said.
—Ally Schweitzer, NPR, 6 May 2024
Trump has suggested that officials might not prosecute the kinds of demonstrators who took over, barricaded, and vandalized a building at Columbia.
—David Jackson, USA TODAY, 4 May 2024
Worn, weathered and vandalized, missing an arm and the discus itself, it was quietly removed in 1970 and put in storage, and was not missed by many.
—John Branch, New York Times, 2 May 2024
At the University of Pennsylvania, officials say a campus statue was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and are calling on demonstrators — from Penn and other area schools — to disband.
—Rachel Treisman, NPR, 29 Apr. 2024
Someone vandalized the men’s bathroom April 20 VEHICLE THEFT: 1:37 a.m. in the 1100 block of El Solyo Avenue.
—Anne Gelhaus, The Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2024
Surveillance video shared on social media by the chapter showed a man with a yellow t-shirt and jeans surveying the flag pole at the Titusville, Florida, nonprofit before proceeding to vandalize it on Tuesday evening.
—Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Fox News, 6 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vandalize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near vandalize
Cite this Entry
“Vandalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vandalize. Accessed 17 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
vandalize
verb
Legal Definition
vandalize
transitive verb
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