PROFANE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does profane mean? 

• PROFANE (adjective)
  The adjective PROFANE has 4 senses:

1. characterized by profanity or cursing

2. not concerned with or devoted to religion

3. not holy because unconsecrated or impure or defiled

4. grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred

  Familiarity information: PROFANE used as an adjective is uncommon.

• PROFANE (verb)
  The verb PROFANE has 2 senses:

1. corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality

2. violate the sacred character of a place or language

  Familiarity information: PROFANE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROFANE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by profanity or cursing

Synonyms:

blasphemous; blue; profane

Context example:

profane words

Similar:

dirty ((of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency)

Derivation:

profaneness (unholiness by virtue of being profane)

profanity (vulgar or irreverent speech or action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not concerned with or devoted to religion

Synonyms:

profane; secular

Context example:

children being brought up in an entirely profane environment

Similar:

laic; lay; secular (characteristic of those who are not members of the clergy)

profanatory (profaning or tending to desecrate)

Also:

earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)

impious (lacking piety or reverence for a god)

secular; temporal; worldly (characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world)

Antonym:

sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)

Derivation:

profaneness (an attitude of irreverence or contempt for a divinity)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not holy because unconsecrated or impure or defiled

Synonyms:

profane; unconsecrated; unsanctified

Similar:

unhallowed; unholy (not hallowed or consecrated)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred

Synonyms:

blasphemous; profane; sacrilegious

Context example:

it is sacrilegious to enter with shoes on

Similar:

irreverent (showing lack of due respect or veneration)

Derivation:

profaneness (an attitude of irreverence or contempt for a divinity)

• PROFANE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they profane    ... he / she / it profanes   
Past simple: profaned   
Past participle: profaned   
-ing form: profaning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

corrupt; debase; debauch; demoralise; demoralize; deprave; misdirect; pervert; profane; subvert; vitiate

Context example:

corrupt the morals

Hypernyms (to "profane" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "profane"):

carnalise; carnalize; sensualise; sensualize (debase through carnal gratification)

infect (corrupt with ideas or an ideology)

lead astray; lead off (teach immoral behavior to)

poison (spoil as if by poison)

bastardise; bastardize (change something so that its value declines; for example, art forms)

suborn (incite to commit a crime or an evil deed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

profanation (degradation of something worthy of respect; cheapening)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Violate the sacred character of a place or language

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

desecrate; outrage; profane; violate

Context example:

profane the name of God

Hypernyms (to "profane" is one way to...):

assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

profanation (blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character)

 Context examples 

I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Life in general might still be sacred, but life in the particular case of Thomas Mugridge had become very profane indeed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple, esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom; which, having been polluted some years before by an unnatural murder, was, according to the zeal of those people, looked upon as profane, and therefore had been applied to common use, and all the ornaments and furniture carried away.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

There was a sort of poetic justice about it, after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles around, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable 'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Upon which, Janet came running up the stairs as if the house were in flames, darted out on a little piece of green in front, and warned off two saddle-donkeys, lady-ridden, that had presumed to set hoof upon it; while my aunt, rushing out of the house, seized the bridle of a third animal laden with a bestriding child, turned him, led him forth from those sacred precincts, and boxed the ears of the unlucky urchin in attendance who had dared to profane that hallowed ground.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)