[ noun ] blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character <noun.act> desecration of the Holy Sabbath
Sacrilege \Sac"ri*lege\, n. [F. sacril[`e]ge, L. sacrilegium, from sacrilegus that steals, properly, gathers or picks up, sacred things; sacer sacred + legere to gather, pick up. See {Sacred}, and {Legend}.] The sin or crime of violating or profaning sacred things; the alienating to laymen, or to common purposes, what has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses.
And the hid treasures in her sacred tomb With sacrilege to dig. --Spenser.
Families raised upon the ruins of churches, and enriched with the spoils of sacrilege. --South.
But if any doubt remains that tobacco no longer dominates RJR Nabisco Inc., it will be erased this week when the company unveils a proposal once considered sacrilege: moving the corporate headquarters to Atlanta.
'It is not sacrilege, heresy or treason to talk about priorities.' It is not clear what Noar will do when his two-year contract with PPP comes to an end.
"My neighbors say it is sacrilege, unpatriotic and everything else," he said. "It was the plow that opened the prairie.
It commits sacrilege and blames the system.
Far from feeling shameful at committing such sacrilege, Oliva stoutly defends his product: 'It looks like beer, it tastes like beer and it has a head, too,' he says.
Jews viewed the convent, which houses 14 Carmelite nuns in a warehouse used by the Nazis to store gas cylinders for the Auschwitz crematoria, as a sacrilege to the memory of their brethren.