Definition of "desecrate" [des•e•crate]

• To violate the sacredness of; profane. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A standard definition for desecrate is to profane, to abuse, to violate the sacredness of."
• "The dictionary won't help me on this; they all define the word desecrate as strictly a religious term that you might apply to the destruction of objects found in a church or synagogue, certainly not to a secular object like an American flag."
• "To "desecrate" something it has to be sacred in the first place."