BLASPHEMY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does blasphemy mean? 

• BLASPHEMY (noun)
  The noun BLASPHEMY has 2 senses:

1. blasphemous language (expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred)

2. blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character

  Familiarity information: BLASPHEMY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLASPHEMY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Blasphemous language (expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("blasphemy" is a kind of...):

discourtesy; disrespect (an expression of lack of respect)

profanity (vulgar or irreverent speech or action)

Derivation:

blasphemous (characterized by profanity or cursing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

blasphemy; desecration; profanation; sacrilege

Context example:

desecration of the Holy Sabbath

Hypernyms ("blasphemy" is a kind of...):

irreverence; violation (a disrespectful act)

Derivation:

blasphemous (grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred)

 Context examples 

So passed Sunday, and Monday morning he was hard at work, sorting clothes, while Joe, a towel bound tightly around his head, with groans and blasphemies, was running the washer and mixing soft-soap.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Each word was a blasphemy, and there were many words.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In the morning Henry was aroused by fervid blasphemy that proceeded from the mouth of Bill.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Joe Berks, who had grown noisier and more quarrelsome as the evening went on, tried to clamber across the table, with horrible blasphemies, to come to blows with an old Jew named Fighting Yussef, who had plunged into the discussion.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father; and indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Blasphemy against nature!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This, at the time I write, has been proved, I believe, to be the case; but, as it would have been flat blasphemy against the system to have hinted such a doubt then, I looked out for the penitence as diligently as I could.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Which was rather severe on the professors, but which to Ruth was blasphemy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

With a turn for literary expression myself, and a penchant for forcible figures and phrases, I appreciated, as no other listener, I dare say, the peculiar vividness and strength and absolute blasphemy of his metaphors.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There were several books on a shelf; one lay beside the tea things open, and Utterson was amazed to find it a copy of a pious work, for which Jekyll had several times expressed a great esteem, annotated, in his own hand with startling blasphemies.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)