vandalize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
vandalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vandalized,
past participle, past
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vandalizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
vandalizesimple
-
vandalizessimple
-
have vandalizedperfect
-
has vandalizedperfect
-
am vandalizingprogressive
-
are vandalizingprogressive
-
is vandalizingprogressive
-
have been vandalizingperfect progressive
-
has been vandalizingperfect progressive
Past
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vandalizedsimple
-
had vandalizedperfect
-
was vandalizingprogressive
-
were vandalizingprogressive
-
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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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.
See Examples For:
"I didn’t vandalize anything," Hearn told the Washington Post last month.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
Investigators believe he planned to vandalize Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a Catholic church across the street, in the same manner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2023
Last school year, several schools closed bathrooms because of a TikTok trend that encouraged students to vandalize and steal paper towel dispensers and fire alarms.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 26, 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
Missouri Revised Statute 194.410 states that any person or entity that “knowingly disturbs, destroys, vandalizes, or damages a marked or unmarked human burial site commits a class D felony.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2021
The bill upgrades the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony if someone vandalizes “any public monument or structure on public property.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 1, 2021
Macron’s government has said it will crack down harder on unauthorized protests and get tougher on anyone who loots or vandalizes shops and monuments.
From Reuters ● Jan. 9, 2019
When Bart vandalizes a statue in the center of Springfield, he confesses to the whole town and is immediately forgiven.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2014
He draws in nail polish, sloshes gnarly ceramic sculptures with glaze, builds and vandalizes Formica plinths in mockery of Minimalism and makes street-wise, toxic-looking Rothkos, using black and fluorescent spray paint.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2010
Attorney Michael Spence told the judge during a September hearing that there was no plan to recharge Hearn, but he couldn’t promise the office wouldn’t investigate further whether he vandalized the reflecting pool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
The outside of the cafe was vandalized with graffiti.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Sandy Brillhart, whose home was among those vandalized, told the network, “I’ve had trouble sleeping. Every little noise, I’m worried someone is lurking.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
But Martinez, who has worked for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for 39 years, said she could not recall any previous instances where the country music singer’s star was vandalized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
“The lock face itself has been ripped out—probably vandalized sometime in the last few centuries. But I should be able to control the mechanism inside, if I can...”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro to prosecute David Hearn, a former Olympian who was accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
Iran’s prosecutor-general, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, expanded that standard in January to include vandalizing public property and instructed prosecutors to pursue such cases without leniency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The outages as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics are spurring frustrations, with demonstrators vandalizing a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.
From Barron's ● Mar. 21, 2026
In July, a Castro Valley resident was charged with vandalizing 17 Waymos in San Francisco over the course of three days, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2025
On Thursday, British authorities charged a pair of climate change activists for vandalizing Stonehenge, a prehistoric megalithic structure on a chalk plateau known as the Salisbury Plain.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2024
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
