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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
Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2024
The deputies responded to a call from the travel center in western Madison County at 8 a.m. on Sep. 26, after a report of several trucks belonging to different agencies being vandalized, resulting in flat tires.
—Christina Shaw, Fox News, 3 Oct. 2024
Authorities also found that the suspect had slashed the car tires of an employee’s car and vandalized a fence, according to the case notes.
—Caelyn Pender, The Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2024
Last month, The San Francisco Chronicle reported agent Lonnie Murray, who is married to former A’s star and Oakland native Dave Stewart, recently expressed player concerns to Freedman about substandard housing in an area where players’ cars were vandalized or stolen.
—Alex Sherman, CNBC, 13 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for vandalize 
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
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“Vandalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vandalize. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
vandalize
verb
Legal Definition
vandalize
transitive verb
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