as in to violate
to remove the sacred qualities or status of
desanctified the church building and converted it into condos
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Recent Examples of desanctify
Someone may have removed these features in an attempt to desanctify the religious icon, according to a government statement.
—
Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 June 2020
Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 June 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desanctify
Verb
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Since then Russia is suspected of testing NATO’s resolve by violating the airspace of Norway, Romania, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, and now Germany too.—
Robert Birsel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
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Though Russian craft have repeatedly violated NATO airspace during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the shootdowns over Poland represented the first time NATO had shot down Russian drones.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Aguilar thinks the basilica should be desacralized and turned into a museum.—
Stephania Taladrid,
The New Yorker,
26 Oct. 2019
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Rumor and street culture—jokes, postcards, sayings, bawdy plays performed in saloons—changed the image of the czar and the czarina, desacralized them, before and during the war.—
Olga Ingurazova,
Smithsonian,
29 Sep. 2017
Verb
-
Installed in a church, the artwork titled Silentium by French conceptual artist James Calomina, was exhibited in a former church in Toulouse that was deconsecrated.—
The Editors of ARTnews,
ARTnews.com,
6 Nov. 2024
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But the seminal Spanish-language church was deconsecrated by the Archdiocese of New York in January, paving the way for its potential sale, alteration or demolition.—
John Freeman Gill,
New York Times,
2 June 2023
Cite this Entry
“Desanctify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desanctify. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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