profane

For those who feel that the contemporary-art world is awash in the profane, Mr. Cowan’s work offers a taste of the sacred.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

On a never-ending feed we watch the cute and profane, sleepwalking toward an emotional state beyond shock as entertainment: the banality of passive consumption.

From Slate ● May 12, 2026

The Church saw vinum clarum as a profane wine, and its consumption was not imbued with Christian symbolism, nor attached to any table ceremony.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024

“It is profane to compare the long, painful history of abuse and discrimination suffered by Black Americans to something totally different.”

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2024

It was, Darwin knew, an explicitly profane diagram.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

It reads: “He that violates his oath profanes the divinity of faith itself.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2022

It profanes and pulverizes any claim she might have on representing the interests of mothers and children.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 1, 2018

It is just not true that all today's modern art despises or profanes the past.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2013

The climax comes when Charlie puts the house up for sale, profanes their devotions, and triumphantly vilifies mother.

From Time Magazine Archive

They both were forfeit, when I broke my Vow, Nor cou'd my Honour with thy Fame decline; Whoe'er profanes thee, injures nought of mine.

From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume III by Montague Summers

This is both a twilight and a twilight zone; every virtue is a simulation of itself, a hollow or profaned image.

From The New Yorker ● May 21, 2019

All that is solid melts into air; all that is holy is profaned.

From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2015

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.”

From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2015

When the call comes from Chau that set this scene in motion, as Mike plays with Kaylee, we feel with him how his one last standing temple has been profaned.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2012

"The High Septon claims we profaned Baelor's Sept with blood,,after lying to him about our intent."

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

This bears mentioning since Hargitay opened Monday’s Emmys telecast by performing “I Love TV Screens,” profaning Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” in doing so.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026

And of course there were important rules about the worship of Yahweh, including loving him, fearing him, emulating him, and not profaning his name.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

“Some have even claimed that only by being here, by my presence, I am traumatizing the Kercher family again, and profaning Meredith’s memory. They are wrong.”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2019

This task is made more difficult by the novelist’s mustache-twirling contempt for profaning fiction with reality.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2018

Before that takes place, the neighbouring nations shall assemble themselves against Jerusalem, with the desire of profaning it, and of enjoying a pleasant spectacle.

From Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1 by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg