vandalize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
vandalizesimple
-
vandalizessimple
-
have vandalizedperfect
-
has vandalizedperfect
-
am vandalizingprogressive
-
are vandalizingprogressive
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is vandalizingprogressive
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have been vandalizingperfect progressive
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has been vandalizingperfect progressive
Past
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vandalizedsimple
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had vandalizedperfect
-
was vandalizingprogressive
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were vandalizingprogressive
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had been vandalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vandalize
Explanation
If you vandalize something, you damage or destroy it. Graffiti can be art, but if you spray paint your initials on a marble statue, you vandalize it. Vandalize has an ancient root: the Vandals were a Germanic group of people who famously sacked Rome in 455. Thanks to the terrible destruction they left in their wake, the word took on a meaning of "willful destroyer of what is beautiful." To vandalize is to deliberately damage something that doesn't belong to you. For some, it's a tradition to vandalize whole neighborhoods on the night before Halloween, strewing toilet paper in trees, smashing jack-o'-lanterns, and spray painting property. We recommend just trick-or-treating instead.
Vocabulary lists containing vandalize
Hoot
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 10–February 16, 2024
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Twins
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I didn’t vandalize anything," Hearn told the Washington Post last month.
From Barron's • Jul. 2, 2026
“We are asking the public to let us conduct our investigation and not to vandalize or damage anyone’s home,” said Officer Natalie Garcia, a Santa Ana police public information officer.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2025
Yet Twombly grasped, I think, that life is plotless, that meaninglessness reigns — hence, perhaps, his urge to deface, to vandalize.
From Washington Post • Jan. 14, 2023
Mr. Jordan said he believes the Department of Justice has the ability to prosecute people who vandalize crisis pregnancy centers.
From Washington Times • Jan. 11, 2023
“And yes, if they’re going to go through all the hassle to vandalize one of my books, you’d think they’d check their spelling.”
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
