vandalize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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.
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
In Reading, where one of Republic’s billboards looks down on a busy street — and where it has survived one attempt to vandalize it — a pro-monarchy resident vented her anger at Mr. Smith.
From New York Times • Jun. 2, 2022
Kelly said he was caught up in the moment, but that he wasn’t armed and didn’t vandalize anything.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 21, 2021
“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.
