profane

comparative profaner · comparative more profane · superlative profanest · superlative most profane · alternative hypercorrect obsolete prophane

1. Unclean; ritually impure; unholy, desecrating a holy place or thing.

   Nothing is profane that serveth to the use of holy things.

   1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)

   Synonyms: defiled, mishallowed, unhallowed, common, impious, impure, mishallowed, unhallowed

2. Not sacred or holy, unconsecrated; relating to non-religious matters, secular.

   profane authors

   2 more examples

   A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before the shrine.

   1781, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC

   The sacred is the emotional force which connects the part to the whole; the profane or the secular is that which has been broken off from, or has fallen off, its emotional bond to the universe.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102

   Synonyms: secular, unsanctified, unhallowed, unholy, irreligious, temporal, worldly, ungodly · Antonyms: faithful, holy, orthodox, religious, sacred, sacrosanct, spiritual

3. Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or scorn; blasphemous, impious.
4. Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain.

   a profane person, word, oath, or tongue

   2 more examples

   the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 1:9

   When asked to explain why he became a landlord, he told the Archbishop of York it was so he could close the pub on Sundays, and suppress the profane language and singing that came through the bar windows.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102

   Synonyms: irreverent

plural profanes · alternative hypercorrect obsolete prophane

1. A person or thing that is profane.

   The nuns were employed in religious duties established in honour of St Clare, and to which no profane was ever admitted.

   1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 244

2. FreemasonryA person not a Mason.

present singular third person profanes · participle present profaning · participle past profaned · past profaned · alternative hypercorrect obsolete prophane

1. transitiveTo violate (something sacred); to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate

   to profane the Scriptures

   3 more examples

   One should not profane the name of God.

   VVhen the vulgar ſort / Sit on their Ale-bench, vvith their cups and kannes, / Matters of ſtate be not their common talke, / Nor pure religion by their lips prophande.

   1600, [Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson], The First Part of the True and Honorable Historie, of the Life of Sir John Old-castle, the Good Lord Cobham. […], London: […] [V[alentine] S[immes]] for Thomas Pauier, […], →OCLC

   With one mind, their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man’s knife, as he carved the chief dish before him. I do not suppose that for the world they would have profaned that moment with the slightest observation, even upon so neutral a topic as the weather.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXIV, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   Synonyms: defile

2. transitiveTo put to a wrong or unworthy use; to debase; to abuse; to defile.

   Synonyms: abase, adulterate, degrade, demean, misapply, misuse, pervert