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profane
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  • It seems profane somehow—the world clean, the air warm—when scores of young men lay cold in their coffins, waiting to return to the earth.   (source)
    profane = disrespectful (of sacred things)
  • Don Baithazar thought that the venerable Daton was a fraud, that Salmud Brevy and Robert Frost should have hanged themselves with their own entrails, that Wordsworth was a fool, and that anything less than Shakespeare's sonnets was a profanation of the language.†   (source)
  • The sound of so many footfalls out there was Tightening, almost a profanation.†   (source)
  • Her first impulse was to curse him for profaning the house when the body of her husband was still warm in the grave.†   (source)
  • (Sara) Leviticus, 21:9 "And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire."†   (source)
  • New Yorkers, however, were another matter, as he reported to his adored Lucy : The people—why the people are magnificent : in their carriages, which are numerous, in their house furniture, which is fine, in their pride and conceit, which are inimitable, in their profaneness, which is intolerable, in the want of principle, which is prevalent, in their Toryism, which is insufferable.†   (source)
  • But on sight of the closet door I had to retreat and scrub my hands in the exam room, ashamed by the feeling that I had secretly profaned her.†   (source)
  • The crowd moved outside, where loudly and profanely they attacked the stolid immovability of a system run amuck.†   (source)
  • "Also," he continued, "think not to engage in the customary mutilation of the wounded and the slain-for this is a holy place and should not be profaned in such a manner.†   (source)
  • The carvings were all profane-humans, animals, even an awkward armadillo.   (source)
    profane = obscene (shockingly offensive by accepted standards)
  • The riders let them come and go unmolested, so long as they observed the peace of the sacred city, did not profane the Mother of Mountains or the Womb of the World, and honored the crones of the dosh khaleen with the traditional gifts of salt, silver, and seed.   (source)
    profane = show disrespect of (something thought sacred)
  • "The High Septon claims we profaned Baelor's Sept with blood, after lying to him about our intent."†   (source)
  • And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.†   (source)
  • He remembered the Widow Nazaret, the only one with whom he had profaned his mother's house on the Street of Windows, although it had been Transito Ariza and not he who had asked her in.†   (source)
  • A radiant Thursday was breaking over the golden domes of the city of the Viceroys, but Fermina Daza, standing at the railing, could not bear the pestilential stink of its glories, the arrogance of its bulwarks profaned by iguanas: the horror of real life.†   (source)
  • Such a court was not like to look with favor on treasonous queens who spread their legs for singers and profaned the Maiden's holy rites to hide their shame.†   (source)
  • Her quacking voice and braying laugh had first profaned the halls of F & S on March 7, 1941 (Mr.†   (source)
  • It was unreal, grotesquely unreal, that morning skies which dawned so tenderly blue could be profaned with cannon smoke that hung over the town like low thunder clouds, that warm noontides filled with the piercing sweetness of massed honeysuckle and climbing roses could be so fearful, as shells screamed into the streets, bursting like the crack of doom, throwing iron splinters hundreds of yards, blowing people and animals to bits.†   (source)
  • This pond has rarely been profaned by a boat, for there is little in it to tempt a fisherman.†   (source)
  • The atrium seemed profaned by their presence.†   (source)
  • He wept with rage over all these mysteries of love, profaned, soiled, laid bare, withered forever.†   (source)
  • Then a few lights twinkled in the darkness that enveloped the cabins; a woman's laugh strangely broke the silence, profaning it, giving the lie to that somber yoke which seemed to consist of the very shadows; the voices of men were heard, and then the slow clip-clop of trotting horses on the hard trail.†   (source)
  • The prince twisted himself loose, unconsciously brushed his profaned shoulder, and eagerly said— "Oh, art HIS father, truly?†   (source)
  • The window went up, a maid-servant's discordant voice profaned the holy calm, and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyr's remains!†   (source)
  • Isabel was unable to estimate the number of times her visitor had, in half an hour, profaned it: the Countess indeed had given her an impression of rather silly sincerity.†   (source)
  • Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone, wrapt in silent meditation; some talked loudly, and profaned the Sabbath day with ostentatious laughter.†   (source)
  • Those books, both prose and verse, are consecrated to me by other associations; and I hate to have them debased and profaned in his mouth!†   (source)
  • My mind shudders when I think of her awful, awful situation, and that, near as she is to the grave, she should be so given up to vanity, licentiousness, profaneness, and folly.†   (source)
  • A feeling such as his was profaned by talk of the rivalry of some Petersburg officer, of the suppositions and the counsels of Stepan Arkadyevitch.†   (source)
  • All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.†   (source)
  • That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.†   (source)
  • It profanes nobody.†   (source)
  • In 1649 the holy sacrament was profaned on two occasions a few days apart, in two churches in Paris, at Saint-Sulpice and at Saint-Jean en Greve, a rare and frightful sacrilege which set the whole town in an uproar.†   (source)
  • Her being there at all had the character of ugly evidence, of handwritings, of profaned relics, of grim things produced in court.†   (source)
  • I am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been set apart, like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, no syllable of rude verse has ever profaned my lips.†   (source)
  • She fled like a shadow, paused, startled over the first apple, but even as he stretched his hand, fled again; hovered over the second, then, slipping from his hot grasp, flew over river, vale, and hill; but as she lingered over the third, his arms fell round her, and looking on each other, the blazing passion of their love profaned the sanctuary of Love, and they were cursed.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • But though he liked and respected the princess, Levin could not call her so without a sense of profaning his feeling for his dead mother.†   (source)
  • I have sometimes disturbed a fish hawk sitting on a white pine over the water; but I doubt if it is ever profaned by the wind of a gull, like Fair Haven.†   (source)
  • Since the wood-cutters, and the railroad, and I myself have profaned Walden, perhaps the most attractive, if not the most beautiful, of all our lakes, the gem of the woods, is White Pond;—a poor name from its commonness, whether derived from the remarkable purity of its waters or the color of its sands.†   (source)
  • …was never a traveller passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts—they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness—but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood.†   (source)
  • " "O, for sweet Christ's sake," she said, not profanely but prayerfully, "let somebody win something just once!"†   (source)
  • He put the Host hurriedly into his mouth and drank the wine: one had to avoid profanation: the cloth was whipped away from the packing-case.†   (source)
  • I am—only too inclined just now to apply the words profanely.†   (source)
  • But at the profanation of such a touch she shrank back, uttering a cry.†   (source)
  • As they halted thus the lieutenant again began to bellow profanely.†   (source)
  • His voice sounded thin and futile after the other's, and to Jurgis it seemed a profanation.†   (source)
  • Even if I could do it, it would be profanation for me to play at being in love.†   (source)
  • Charley profanely hinted they were humbug.†   (source)
  • "What are you laughing at so profanely?" said Rosamond, with bland neutrality.†   (source)
  • I said I looked upon it as a sacrilegious profanation to reward treachery, perhaps crime.†   (source)
  • I vow I should consider it a profanation.†   (source)
  • "Sacrilege! profanation!" resumed the voice of the bald man.†   (source)
  • Marriage is to me apostasy, profanation of the sanctuary of my soul, violation of my manhood, sale of my birthright, shameful surrender, ignominious capitulation, acceptance of defeat.†   (source)
  • The presence of Haze Ruff, the astounding truth of the contact with his huge sheep-defiled hands, had been profanation and degradation under which she sickened with fear and shame.†   (source)
  • Profanely they found that it was not; profanely and patiently they trudged into an infinitely complicated search for a compound that should be.†   (source)
  • His own image started forth a profaner of the cloister, a heretic franciscan, willing and willing not to serve, spinning like Gherardino da Borgo San Donnino, a lithe web of sophistry and whispering in her ear.†   (source)
  • It seems like a profanation of the word to write it in connection with such a monster, so I asked him point-blank, "Why may I not go tonight?"†   (source)
  • A 'sadist' of her kind is an artist in evil, which a wholly wicked person could not be, for in that case the evil would not have been external, it would have seemed quite natural to her, and would not even have been distinguishable from herself; and as for virtue, respect for the dead, filial obedience, since she would never have practised the cult of these things, she would take no impious delight in their profanation.†   (source)
  • This photograph was, of course, in common use in their ritual observances, was subjected to daily profanation, for the friend replied in words which were evidently a liturgical response: "Let him stay there.†   (source)
  • It was a moment in which she met his primitive fury of possession with a woman's primitive fury of profanation.†   (source)
  • Nay, looking at that calm, benignant countenance, the very idea of war and conquest, and lust of dominion, smote him like a profanation.†   (source)
  • It was against this general "confession" that the opponents of "elders" protested, maintaining that it was a profanation of the sacrament of confession, almost a sacrilege, though this was quite a different thing.†   (source)
  • Some of her old friends, principally to be found among the peachy-cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats, did once occasionally say, as they toyed in a ghastly manner with large fans—like charmers reduced to flirting with grim death, after losing all their other beaux—did once occasionally say, when the world assembled together, that they wondered the ashes of the Dedlocks, entombed in the mausoleum, never rose against the profanation of her company.†   (source)
  • "It is profanation in the eyes of the Lord," retorted the old man, "to liken the works of his creatur's, to the power of his own hand."†   (source)
  • "Nay, we will have no profanation, mad Priest," said Locksley; "let us rather hear where you found this prisoner of thine."†   (source)
  • On his return from the Vatican, Franz carefully avoided the Corso; he brought away with him a treasure of pious thoughts, to which the mad gayety of the maskers would have been profanation.†   (source)
  • "Waxen dolls!" interrupted Obed; "it is profanation, in the view of the arts, to liken the miserable handy-work of the dealers in wax to the pure models of antiquity!"†   (source)
  • They never join their voices in praise, and it would seem that they are among the profanest of the idolatrous.†   (source)
  • Here, contemplation is profanation.†   (source)
  • One day the planks stream with freshets of blood and oil; on the sacred quarter-deck enormous masses of the whale's head are profanely piled; great rusty casks lie about, as in a brewery yard; the smoke from the try-works has besooted all the bulwarks; the mariners go about suffused with unctuousness; the entire ship seems great leviathan himself; while on all hands the din is deafening.†   (source)
  • It was as though his brain were full of smoke; lightnings darted between his lips; his ideas vanished; it seemed to him that he was accomplishing some religious act, and that he was committing a profanation.†   (source)
  • If you cannot build temples for the worship of the Lord above ground, then build them below the ground; and to keep them from profanation, carry to them the bodies of all who die in the faith.†   (source)
  • In short, it was a scene of wildness and desolation; and it appeared as if all who had profanely entered it had been stricken, at a blow, by the relentless arm of death.†   (source)
  • His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to emaciation, but of extraordinary length; and his knees would have been considered tremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader foundations on which this false superstructure of blended human orders was so profanely reared.†   (source)
  • She used to add, with a smirk that unprofane people can't control when venturing into profanity, "and wash as far as possible, then wash possible."   (source)
    unprofane = respectful of things thought sacred
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unprofane means not and reverses the meaning of profane. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • Mr. Bainbridge had tactfully tried to distract the conversation onto neutral historical ground by saying that he had always been interested in the variations of what was considered profane speech through the ages.   (source)
    profane = obscene (shockingly offensive by accepted standards)
  •   Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
      Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,   (source)
    profaners = people who treat without proper reverence
  • [Romeo taking Juliet's hand]
    If I profane with my unworthiest hand
    This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
    My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
    To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.   (source)
    profane = treat without proper reverence
  • There was a tremendous ejaculation from Miles Hendon—not altogether unprofane—followed by— "This doth well and truly account for his complaisance!†   (source)
  • It appeared, by what I could piece together of the unprofane fragments of his statement, that he had chanced upon Sir Ossaise at dawn of the morning, and been told that if he would make a short cut across the fields and swamps and broken hills and glades, he could head off a company of travelers who would be rare customers for prophylactics and tooth-wash.†   (source)
  • I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unprofaned means not and reverses the meaning of profaned. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • Who profaned our silent shade?†   (source)
  • O name, O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!†   (source)
  • ] Apollo, pardon My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!†   (source)
  • 89:39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.†   (source)
  • The skipping King, he ambled up and down With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, Mingled his royalty, with capering fools; Had his great name profaned with their scorns; And gave his countenance, against his name, To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push Of every beardless vain comparative; Grew a companion to the common streets, Enfeoff'd himself to popularity; That, being dally swallow'd by men's eyes, They surfeited with honey, and…†   (source)
  • O King, thy willful temper ails the State, For all our shrines and altars are profaned By what has filled the maw of dogs and crows, The flesh of Oedipus' unburied son.†   (source)
  • Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours; Be now the father and propose a son, Hear your own dignity so much profaned, See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted, Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd; And then imagine me taking your part And in your power soft silencing your son: After this cold considerance, sentence me; And, as you are a king, speak in your state What I have done that misbecame my place, My person, or my liege's sovereignty.†   (source)
  • Not God Omnipotent, nor Fate; yet so Perhaps thou shalt not die, perhaps the fact Is not so heinous now, foretasted fruit, Profaned first by the serpent, by him first Made common, and unhallowed, ere our taste; Nor yet on him found deadly; yet he lives; Lives, as thou saidst, and gains to live, as Man, Higher degree of life; inducement strong To us, as likely tasting to attain Proportional ascent; which cannot be But to be Gods, or Angels, demi-Gods.†   (source)
  • My Sophia! how dares such a wretch as I mention her so profanely.†   (source)
  • We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation.†   (source)
  • What I am and what I would are as secret as maidenhead: to your ears, divinity; to any other's, profanation.†   (source)
  • O, there be players that I have seen play,—and heard others praise, and that highly,—not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.†   (source)
  • If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have.†   (source)
  • …in a married state, as it can only produce that high and tender friendship which should always be the cement of this union; and, in my opinion, all those marriages which are contracted from other motives are greatly criminal; they are a profanation of a most holy ceremony, and generally end in disquiet and misery: for surely we may call it a profanation to convert this most sacred institution into a wicked sacrifice to lust or avarice: and what better can be said of those matches…†   (source)
  • If poor Mama Elena had known that even after she was dead her presence was enough to inspire terror—and that this fear of encountering her is what provided Tita and Pedro the perfect opportunity to profane her favorite place with impunity, rolling voluptuously on Gertrudis's bed—she would have died another hundred times over.   (source)
  • THE PEOPLE [OF NEW YORK]-WHY THE PEOPLE ARE MAGNIFICENT; IN THEIR CARRIAGES, WHICH ARE NUMEROUS, IN THEIR HOUSE FURNITURE, WHICH IS FINE, IN THEIR PRIDE AND CONCEIT, WHICH ARE INIMITABLE, IN THEIR PROFANENESS, WHICH IS INTOLERABLE, IN THE WANT OF PRINCIPLE, WHICH IS PREVALENT, AND IN THEIR TORYISM, WHICH IS INSUFFERABLE.   (source)
    profaneness = the quality of disrespecting things thought to be sacred
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  • "Yeah, I was a jerk," I offered, knowing there were other, probably more accurate words to describe me back then, all of which were profane enough to offend her.†   (source)
  • His voice was a loud, profane rasp.†   (source)
  • I am sorry to say that I consider him to have been a part of the same corrupt system that was responsible for the appointment of a coarse and profane man such as Warden Smith.†   (source)
  • Email is a safe, convenient cover, the last refuge of the small-minded and the profane.†   (source)
  • By that time he had moved on to tearful serialized novels and other, even more profane prose of the day.†   (source)
  • "This is a true esthetic feeling which all mathematicians know," Poincaré said, "but of which the profane are so ignorant as often to be tempted to smile."†   (source)
  • Her father had a way of undermining his sister's lectures on the innate superiority of any given Finch: he always told his daughter the rest of it, quietly and solemnly, but Jean Louise sometimes thought she detected an unmistakably profane glint in Atticus Finch's eyes, or was it merely the light hitting his glasses?†   (source)
  • Chauncey had a profane retort on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it.†   (source)
  • It sounded profane coming from the mouth of a child.†   (source)
  • The feral hog shows a remarkable understanding of human speech, especially profane speech," he mumbled, quoting from the book.†   (source)
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  • And Mike in turn softened his martinet's aura with frequent outbursts of goofy, profane humor.†   (source)
  • Eiko, Fumi, and I have gotten to be so profane that Tom and the rest have given up being surprised.†   (source)
  • 'For how long?' mocked the profane old man with a gleam of malicious elation.†   (source)
  • If my son could respond to hearing profane language or the touch of white jade against my skin, then certainly he had to feel my love for Snow Flower in his little body too.†   (source)
  • He's vulgar, crude, profane, dirty, and he smokes the filthiest cigars ever made.†   (source)
  • In all honesty the thought of powdering him felt profane to her.†   (source)
  • A New Hampshire clergyman, Jeremy Belknap, after dining with the general in Cambridge, thought him "an odd genius …. a great sloven, wretchedly profane, and a great admirer of dogs, one of them a native of Pomerania, which I should have taken for a bear had I seen him in the woods."†   (source)
  • To free you I would need to send the gold cloaks and profane this holy place with killing.†   (source)
  • Observations at the necessary distance cannot be detailed, but such as have been made indicate consistently that living forms are in the process, although in the most profane shapes, of encroaching upon this fearsome desolation.†   (source)
  • Within them exist the divine and the profane.†   (source)
  • Conversation often lapses into the profane, as the president's naval background lends truth to the saying "swears like a sailor."†   (source)
  • THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE She looked at the glowing bands on the skin of her arm, spaced like bracelets from her wrist to her shoulder.†   (source)
  • I myself heard him give a profane and disgusting rendition of the cadet prayer while R Company was forming up to march to chapel.†   (source)
  • Indeed, in a marriage ceremony, red on a bride's cheek is her real vow, the rest useless and profane.†   (source)
  • Ask forgiveness for your profane and evil ways, Conrad Keith Jarrett!" and he had nodded, eating on, while Robbie leaned across the table, and asked, "Stan, may I have your gingerbread?†   (source)
  • He was talkative full of gossip and stories, profane, vulgar and friendly.†   (source)
  • I am not profane by accident.†   (source)
  • Funny, though, how many prefer the profane brew.†   (source)
  • Irene said: "A great, profane man like all the Mclnnis men of Asphodel, Mr. Don Mclnnis.†   (source)
  • To Adams, nonetheless, he was a profane and impious fool.†   (source)
  • ""A profane rendition of the cadet prayer?" the General said with a gasp.†   (source)
  • It wasn't that profane, General," I whined.†   (source)
  • Do not profane the Palace of Karma with bloodshed.†   (source)
  • "There's no point in being profane.†   (source)
  • Ninety days after that, another police board: this time for using profane language to a private citizen.†   (source)
  • But dying willingly had felt profane.†   (source)
  • He snarled belligerently at superior officers, even at Major Danby, and was crude and surly and profane even in front of the chaplain, who was afraid of Dunbar now and seemed to be wasting away also.†   (source)
  • He was irascible, often profane, and constantly ruffled the smooth feathers of the hidebound Navy, but like Patton, he was a winner.†   (source)
  • Welch had been rolled out of bed at 5:00 that morning with a profane phone call from Harry Rex Vonner, an old roommate from law school.†   (source)
  • Remembering that day at lunch when Stan Carmichael rose from his chair pointing his finger in stern accusation: "Profane and unholy boy!†   (source)
  • He shows remarkable understanding of human speech, especially profane speech, and even an uncanny— gift of reading men's thoughts, whenever those thoughts are directed against the peace and dignity of pigship."†   (source)
  • Smith, a man at once pugnacious, profane, and professorial, proposed that the business of mounting continental land offensives was the historic province of the Army, and should remain so.†   (source)
  • Dare to profane with his unworthiest hand that … No, he didn't.†   (source)
  • "Daughter," said Gerald rousing himself, "you are profane.†   (source)
  • "How can you dare to profane this symbol of God by resting your feet on it?" demanded the priest.†   (source)
  • He rose exultantly from their profane surprise, and took Sinker to dinner at the best hotel.†   (source)
  • Extravagantly mad, he built roaring fires in his sitting-room, drenching the leaping fire with a can of oil; spitting exultantly into the answering roar, and striking up, until he was exhausted, a profane chant, set to a few recurrent bars of music, which ran, for forty minutes, somewhat like this: "O-ho—Goddam, Goddam, Goddam, O-ho—Goddam, Goddam—Goddam."†   (source)
  • When the young, roving male broke into the pleasant haunt, a shriek of female terror went up, and all the bodies crowded about their mistress, trying to hide her from the profane eye.†   (source)
  • Some stores which had nothing to gain from the children neither locked them out nor gave them anything save a profane lecture on the evils of begging.†   (source)
  • Many centuries previously a profane writer had claimed to reveal a secret of the Church by declaring that purgatory did not exist.†   (source)
  • The sidewalks were crowded with men in uniform, bearing the insignia of all ranks and all service branches; the narrow street was jammed with vehicles—carriages, buggies, ambulances, covered army wagons with profane drivers swearing as the mules struggled through the ruts; gray-clad couriers dashed spattering through the streets from one headquarters to another, bearing orders and telegraphic dispatches; convalescents limped about on crutches, usually with a solicitous lady at either…†   (source)
  • Dave vented his satisfaction in forceful, though profane, speech.†   (source)
  • Andrew: you are trying to put me off the subject of the inheritance by profane jokes.†   (source)
  • —of a truth must I profane his sacred person with a touch, sith his slumber is deaf to speech.†   (source)
  • From another a shrill lamentation rang out filled with profane allusions to a general.†   (source)
  • "It's not a time to be profane, Newland….†   (source)
  • —Heavenly God! cried Stephen's soul, in an outburst of profane joy.†   (source)
  • How fleet must Atalanta be if she will not be tempted by gold to profane the Sanctuary!†   (source)
  • Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster.†   (source)
  • It was the sole profane ring which was linked to that devout chain of convents.†   (source)
  • —it hinders profane language, and attaches a man to the society of refined females.†   (source)
  • Beware of a profane taste in your theological style.†   (source)
  • REV. S. [blustering] Silence, sir, silence: you are profane.†   (source)
  • Did not a Roman profane the Holy of Holies?†   (source)
  • The German literate reversed this process with the profane French literature.†   (source)
  • This made him angry, and he said something profane about the church.†   (source)
  • Profane eyes must see nothing of that sacred place.†   (source)
  • This seemed profane, and the prioress forbade it.†   (source)
  • "What profane mummery is this?" said the Prior.†   (source)
  • He was less cruel, less profane, and made less noise, than Mr. Severe.†   (source)
  • Don't profane—don't insult—the memory of my innocent son."†   (source)
  • It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object.†   (source)
  • Added to his cruelty, he was a profane swearer.†   (source)
  • An arcanum which no profane eye must penetrate.†   (source)
  • Panhandle Smith was the red-faced cook, merry, profane, a short, bow-legged man resembling many rustlers Duane had known, particularly Luke Stevens.†   (source)
  • She was watching him closely and the silence was embarrassing, yet in this crisis he could find no casual word with which to profane the hour.†   (source)
  • So that it might well be that Hans Castorp would join up with the radicals, turn out to be a go-getter, a profane destroyer of old buildings and beautiful landscapes, as footloose as a Jew, as irreverent as an American, a man likely to prefer a ruthless break with venerable traditions to cautious development of natural resources, a man who would plunge the state into reckless experiments— that was conceivable, too.†   (source)
  • Helen gazed strangely at her bruised wrists, at the one stocking that hung down over her shoe-top, at the rent which had bared her shoulder to the profane gaze of those grinning, beady-eyed Mexicans.†   (source)
  • …up and catch her shuttlecock until a governess, with a blue feather in her hat, had called her away) a marvellous little band of light, of the colour of heliotrope, spread over the lawn like a carpet on which I could not tire of treading to and fro with lingering feet, nostalgic and profane, while Francoise shouted: "Come on, button up your coat, look, and let's get away!" and I remarked for the first time how common her speech was, and that she had, alas, no blue feather in her hat.†   (source)
  • But Lord, I don't want to take him from 'ee—ever I should sin to speak so profane—though I should think you must have enough of your own!†   (source)
  • It was pleasant after that honour to return to the profane world of spectators amid nudges and significant looks.†   (source)
  • With none of the profane observations on "medical peddlers" which had annoyed Digamma Pi, Martin studied the catalogue of the New Idea Instrument and Furniture Company, of Jersey City.†   (source)
  • In the profane world, as he foresaw, a worldly voice would bid him raise up his father's fallen state by his labours and, meanwhile, the voice of his school comrades urged him to be a decent fellow, to shield others from blame or to beg them off and to do his best to get free days for the school.†   (source)
  • Life in general might still be sacred, but life in the particular case of Thomas Mugridge had become very profane indeed.†   (source)
  • Know then that in the time of the Great Rebellion (the history of which by the learned Lord Clarendon I most earnestly commend to your attention) this Manor of Baskerville was held by Hugo of that name, nor can it be gainsaid that he was a most wild, profane, and godless man.†   (source)
  • He wanted to load her name with curses now; but this name had so long been sacred to him that he found he could not bring his tongue to profane it.†   (source)
  • As Jude reflected more and more on her news, and grew more restless, he began in his mental agony to use terribly profane language about social conventions, which started a fit of coughing.†   (source)
  • Leib was a mere boy, but he saw that the methods of those clumsy goyim, though excusably charitable, were also profane, that they did not honor sacred things in the same way his father's solemn pitilessness did; and so for him the idea of piety became bound up with cruelty, just as the sight and smell of spurting blood was bound up in his mind with the idea of what is holy and spiritual.†   (source)
  • Sondelius answered, in a profane and blotty scrawl, that he remembered with joy their Minneapolis vacation, that he disagreed with Entwisle of Harvard about the nature of metathrombin, that there was an excellent Italian restaurant in Boston, and that he would inquire among his health-official friends as to a position.†   (source)
  • The astounded world, the astounded and profane Clif Clawson, had the spectacle of Martin in shiny pressed clothes, a painful linen collar, and an arduously tied scarf, accompanying Mrs. Fox and the chastely chattering Madeline to the Mohalis Methodist Church, to hear the Reverend Dr. Myron Schwab discourse on "The One Way to Righteousness."†   (source)
  • I can only quote profane writers!†   (source)
  • I won't listen to you—you are so profane!" she said, in a restless state between distress at hearing him and a penchant to hear more.†   (source)
  • "No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg," said Bildad, "but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding."†   (source)
  • Keen scent has she for tainted air; She snuffs within her book of prayer, And smells each article, to see If sacred or profane it be; So here she guessed, from every gem, That not much blessing came with them.†   (source)
  • …guessed what sad memories what warm affection, what tender fluttering hopes, had their home in this athletic body with the broken finger-nails—in this rough man, who knew no better lyrics than he could find in the Old and New Version and an occasional hymn; who knew the smallest possible amount of profane history; and for whom the motion and shape of the earth, the course of the sun, and the changes of the seasons lay in the region of mystery just made visible by fragmentary knowledge.†   (source)
  • Miss Nancy, indeed, had never been to any school higher than Dame Tedman's: her acquaintance with profane literature hardly went beyond the rhymes she had worked in her large sampler under the lamb and the shepherdess; and in order to balance an account, she was obliged to effect her subtraction by removing visible metallic shillings and sixpences from a visible metallic total.†   (source)
  • The relics were concealed from profane eyes; his people were admonished not to speak of miracles before a race that not only denied their existence, but who had even the desperate hardihood to challenge their proofs; and even the Bible itself was prohibited, with terrible denunciations, for the triumphant reason that it was liable to be misinterpreted.†   (source)
  • "Nay; it would be sinful, in such a question, to follow the clue of profane philosophy," said Mr. Wilson.†   (source)
  • Upon which, Janet came running up the stairs as if the house were in flames, darted out on a little piece of green in front, and warned off two saddle-donkeys, lady-ridden, that had presumed to set hoof upon it; while my aunt, rushing out of the house, seized the bridle of a third animal laden with a bestriding child, turned him, led him forth from those sacred precincts, and boxed the ears of the unlucky urchin in attendance who had dared to profane that hallowed ground.†   (source)
  • As she felt the glad relief she bowed her head a little lower; the sense was there, throbbing in her heart; it was part of her emotion, but it was a thing to be ashamed of—it was profane and out of place.†   (source)
  • His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray's Grammar,* and was garnished at convenient intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account shall induce us to transcribe.†   (source)
  • The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps.†   (source)
  • She used to consult him on passages of French which she could not understand, though her mother was a Frenchwoman, and which he would construe to her satisfaction: and, besides giving her his aid in profane literature, he was kind enough to select for her books of a more serious tendency, and address to her much of his conversation.†   (source)
  • I thought about how this marvelous electric force not only gave motion, heat, and light to the Nautilus but even protected it against outside attack, transforming it into a sacred ark no profane hand could touch without being blasted; my wonderment was boundless, and it went from the submersible itself to the engineer who had created it.†   (source)
  • Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her merriment, ere she answered: "I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song.†   (source)
  • Sacred, or profane?†   (source)
  • He's expected at noon, and no wight till he comes May profane the great chair, or the porridge of plums For the best of the cheer, and the seat by the fire, Is the undenied right of the Barefooted Friar.†   (source)
  • "An old flagrant female, sir, swearing and committing a nuisance in a horrible profane manner against the church wall, sir, as if 'twere no more than a pot-house!†   (source)
  • I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.†   (source)
  • There was a sort of poetic justice about it, after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles around, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable 'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed.†   (source)
  • Men and women, boys and girls, trotted along beside or after the cart, hooting, shouting profane and ribald remarks, singing snatches of foul song, skipping, dancing—a very holiday of hellions, a sickening sight.†   (source)
  • That no one shall travel on that day, or any part thereof, under pain of forfeiting twenty shillings; that no vessel shall leave a harbour of the colony; that no persons shall keep outside the meeting-house during the time of public worship, or profane the time by playing or talking, on penalty of five shillings.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER III RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board.†   (source)
  • He was, in truth, a minstrel of the western continent—of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared to exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in thanksgiving for, the recent victory.†   (source)
  • I have talked with Eliza about her boy—her duty to him as a Christian mother, to watch over him, pray for him, and bring him up in a Christian way; and now what can I say, if you tear him away, and sell him, soul and body, to a profane, unprincipled man, just to save a little money?†   (source)
  • …into circumstances connected with a paper entitled "The New England Courier," expresses its opinion that "the tendency of the said journal is to turn religion into derision and bring it into contempt; that it mentions the sacred writers in a profane and irreligious manner; that it puts malicious interpretations upon the conduct of the ministers of the Gospel; and that the Government of his Majesty is insulted, and the peace and tranquillity of the province disturbed by the said…†   (source)
  • The service had not yet begun, but at Saint Peter's there is much to observe, and as there is something almost profane in the vastness of the place, which seems meant as much for physical as for spiritual exercise, the different figures and groups, the mingled worshippers and spectators, may follow their various intentions without conflict or scandal.†   (source)
  • —FULLLER'S PROFANE AND HOLY STATE.†   (source)
  • On each side of the choir and behind the gratings opening into the convent was assembled the whole community of the Carmelites, who listened to the divine service, and mingled their chant with the chant of the priests, without seeing the profane, or being seen by them.†   (source)
  • No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no Past at my back.†   (source)
  • Nor were they less careful to prevent any unhallowed layman from touching the pall, which, having been that used at the funeral of Saint Edmund, was liable to be desecrated, if handled by the profane.†   (source)
  • As if long habituated to such profane talk from his old shipmate, Bildad, without noticing his present irreverence, quietly looked up, and seeing me, glanced again inquiringly towards Peleg.†   (source)
  • Never minstrel, or by whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his talents in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne where all homage and praise is due.†   (source)
  • …of such acts of charity as are the ornament and comfort of Christian societies:—Whereas irreligious or light-minded persons, forgetting the duties which the Sabbath imposes, and the benefits which these duties confer on society, are known to profane its sanctity, by following their pleasures or their affairs; this way of acting being contrary to their own interest as Christians, and calculated to annoy those who do not follow their example; being also of great injury to society at…†   (source)
  • On the books of profane music which entered the convent, amour (love) was replaced by tambour (drum) or pandour.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, not three days previous, Bildad had told them that no profane songs would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in getting under weigh; and Charity, his sister, had placed a small choice copy of Watts in each seaman's berth.†   (source)
  • "The Brethren of the Temple," said the Grand Master, riding forward in advance of their body, "fight not on such idle and profane quarrel—and not with thee, Richard of England, shall a Templar cross lance in my presence.†   (source)
  • Ought I to feel that our tie is profane in comparison with yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the horizon, or that clump of waving grass that divides the brook?†   (source)
  • To be buried in the vault under the altar of the chapel, not to go to profane earth; to remain there in death where she prayed while living; such was the last wish of Mother Crucifixion.†   (source)
  • It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grub-worm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane.†   (source)
  • "Thou art utterly irregular," said the Prior; "one of those disorderly men, who, taking on them the sacred character without due cause, profane the holy rites, and endanger the souls of those who take counsel at their hands; 'lapides pro pane condonantes iis', giving them stones instead of bread as the Vulgate hath it."†   (source)
  • …measure of great authors, of Bacon, Milton, Tasso,[652] Cervantes,[653] we might leave the fact in the twilight of human fate: but, that this man of men, he who gave to the science of mind a new and larger subject than had ever existed, and planted the standard of humanity some furlongs forward into Chaos,—that he should not be wise for himself,—it must even go into the world's history, that the best poet led an obscure and profane life, using his genius for the public amusement.†   (source)
  • Here is a profane and drunken minstrel, called Allan-a-Dale—'nebulo quidam'—who has menaced me with corporal punishment—nay, with death itself, an I pay not down four hundred crowns of ransom, to the boot of all the treasure he hath already robbed me of—gold chains and gymmal rings to an unknown value; besides what is broken and spoiled among their rude hands, such as my pouncer-box and silver crisping-tongs."†   (source)
  • Earl can be sort of profane sometimes.†   (source)
  • BRINI, PAPAL NUNCIO: (In papal zouave's uniform, steel cuirasses as breastplate, armplates, thighplates, legplates, large profane moustaches and brown paper mitre) Leopoldi autem generatio.†   (source)
  • But the most curious disparity between the profane vocabulary of the two tongues is presented by /bloody/.†   (source)
  • Just why it is regarded as profane and indecent by the English is one of the mysteries of the language.†   (source)
  • NAN: Now quit thee, for heaven, of that profane nation; And gently report thy next transmigration.†   (source)
  • _ —Far hence be souls profane, The sibyl cry'd, and from the grove abstain.†   (source)
  • That declaration is very urbane, But in a man of God it's a bit profane.†   (source)
  • Initiate me into all those mysteries which profane eyes never beheld.†   (source)
  • —How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?†   (source)
  • At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple, esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom; which, having been polluted some years before by an unnatural murder, was, according to the zeal of those people, looked upon as profane, and therefore had been applied to common use, and all the ornaments and furniture carried away.†   (source)
  • By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time, When tempest of commotion, like the south Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.†   (source)
  • Sacred What And the word Profane, is usually taken in the Scripture for the same with Common; and consequently their contraries, Holy, and Proper, in the Kingdome of God must be the same also.†   (source)
  • Upon a sudden, As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met, Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once With some diffused song; upon their sight We two in great amazedness will fly: Then let them all encircle him about, And fairy-like, to pinch the unclean knight; And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel, In their so sacred paths he dares to tread In shape profane.†   (source)
  • No more be done; We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.†   (source)
  • …of misrepresentation as the pernicious engines by which their local governments were to be destroyed and their liberties exterminated; as the hideous monster whose devouring jaws would spare neither sex nor age, nor high nor low, nor sacred nor profane; and yet, strange as it may appear, after all this clamor, to those who may not have happened to contemplate them in the same light, it may be affirmed with perfect confidence that the constitutional operation of the intended government…†   (source)
  • What profane wretch art thou?†   (source)
  • The rain makes them howl like dogs; of one of their sides they make a screen for the other; the profane wretches often turn themselves.†   (source)
  • …greyhounds, nothing but a tame partridge or a bold ferret or two; I have six dozen or so of books, some in our mother tongue, some Latin, some of them history, others devotional; those of chivalry have not as yet crossed the threshold of my door; I am more given to turning over the profane than the devotional, so long as they are books of honest entertainment that charm by their style and attract and interest by the invention they display, though of these there are very few in Spain.†   (source)
  • 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things.†   (source)
  • Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part.†   (source)
  • Haste then, and humbly seek my haughty foe; Tell him, I did not with the Grecians go, Nor did my fleet against his friends employ, Nor swore the ruin of unhappy Troy, Nor mov'd with hands profane his father's dust: Why should he then reject a just!†   (source)
  • And said most sage Cide Hamete to his pen, "Rest here, hung up by this brass wire, upon this shelf, O my pen, whether of skilful make or clumsy cut I know not; here shalt thou remain long ages hence, unless presumptuous or malignant story-tellers take thee down to profane thee.†   (source)
  • I have long dream'd of such a kind of man, So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane; But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.†   (source)
  • Chapter;) and thereby to change, not the thing Consecrated, but onely the use of it, from being Profane and common, to be Holy, and peculiar to Gods service.†   (source)
  • Then, loos'd from shore, we fled his fires profane (Unwillingly we broke our master's chain), And since have sought you thro' the Tuscan main.†   (source)
  • O most profane coxcomb!†   (source)
  • For all Subjects are bound to be in the company and presence of their own Soveraign (when he requireth it) by the law of Nature; nor can they lawfully either expell him from any place of his own Dominion, whether profane or holy; nor go out of his Dominion, without his leave; much lesse (if he call them to that honour,) refuse to eat with him.†   (source)
  • Now am I the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and of the whole countless troop of his descendants; odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry; now I perceive my folly, and the peril into which reading them brought me; now, by God's mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them."†   (source)
  • Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane If I would time expend with such a snipe But for my sport and profit.†   (source)
  • Far hence be souls profane!†   (source)
  • …the blue-ey'd maid For her stol'n statue and her tow'r betray'd, Warn'd by the seer, to her offended name We rais'd and dedicate this wondrous frame, So lofty, lest thro' your forbidden gates It pass, and intercept our better fates: For, once admitted there, our hopes are lost; And Troy may then a new Palladium boast; For so religion and the gods ordain, That, if you violate with hands profane Minerva's gift, your town in flames shall burn, (Which omen, O ye gods, on Graecia turn!†   (source)
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show 1 examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
  • The other egwugwu immediately surrounded their desecrated companion, to shield him from the profane gaze of women and children, and led him away.   (source)
    profane = unholy
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