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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
Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 24 Oct. 2025
Besides being mugged by one of Iza’s henchmen, a brick was thrown through his window and his car was vandalized.
—Jesse Hyde, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025
Randall ended up being arrested amid a flurry of arrests across the state and country for people accused of vandalizing Teslas and dealerships.
—Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 17 Oct. 2025
Arnold and Evetts are among ten individuals who allegedly took part in an ambush of federal agents at the ICE detention facility, during which authorities say the suspects used fireworks to distract officers while vandalizing vehicles outside the facility.
—Billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vandalize
Cite this Entry
“Vandalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vandalize. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
vandalize
verb
Legal Definition
vandalize
transitive verb
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