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as in to rape
to engage in sexual activity and especially intercourse with a person unwilling or unable to give consent criminal statutes delineating acts that constitute violating another person

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of violate That has led to China and the US trading barbs in the past week, over which side violated the temporary trade agreement reached in Geneva. John Liu, CNN Money, 5 June 2025 If an interaction that violates our Community Guidelines occurs, report it to us. ArsTechnica, 5 June 2025 Trump administration targeting more CT school districts over transgender policies The U.S. Department of Education is investigating whether district policy was violating federal law by allowing transgender students to participate in sports and use facilities aligned with their gender identity. Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2025 But looming in the background is Lee’s case for violating South Korea’s election law that could potentially bar him from politics for at least five years. Charlie Campbell, Time, 4 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for violate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for violate
Verb
  • Officials there determined the residents had not intended to break the law and no crime was committed.
    Mark Thiessen, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2025
  • In the second set, Alcaraz broke to get within 4-5 when Sinner sailed a forehand long.
    Adam Zagoria, Forbes.com, 8 June 2025
Verb
  • Read More: The Battle for Our Memory Is the Battle for Our Country But debasing our history through censorship and ideological cherry-picking insults the memory of the nine saints who were murdered at Mother Emanuel, desecrating its sacred space all over again.
    Kevin Sack, Time, 3 June 2025
  • But the real violence — and the reason audiences presumably pay to see these IP parasites — is what’s done to the characters themselves, as there’s an illicit thrill in desecrating powerful brands, like Disney.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 3 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • She had been raped and shot twice in the back of the head.
    Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 8 June 2025
  • Then, investigators say, the brothers often drugged the women before raping them.
    Charles Rabin, Miami Herald, 7 June 2025
Verb
  • Some versions held for over 40 days before decomposition breached the barrier.
    Peter Cummings, Scientific American, 3 June 2025
  • Google also censors certain prompts and outputs that breach the company's content agreement.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 29 May 2025
Verb
  • The strike was also part of a broader pattern of attacks on healthcare facilities, which resulted in approximately 80% of the city’s healthcare facilities being critically damaged or destroyed.
    Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, Forbes.com, 8 June 2025
  • Ukraine underscored the risk to advanced military powers on June 1 when its inexpensive drones damaged or destroyed strategic warplanes across Russia.
    Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, 8 June 2025
Verb
  • After a local teenager was accused of assaulting a white woman, however, white men massacred its citizens, and burned the neighborhood to the ground in one of the most violent episodes in modern American history.
    Meagan Jordan, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2025
  • Some will be charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
    Annabella Rosciglione, The Washington Examiner, 14 June 2025
Verb
  • Without hesitation, Meghan challenged every guest whose conversation contravened her values.
    Jack Royston, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 May 2025
  • In his speech before Congress, which was delivered in 2015, the pope urged a welcoming hand to refugees, not rejection, a theme that contravenes today’s Trump Administration policy of blocking newcomers at U.S. borders.
    David Lyons, Sun Sentinel, 21 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Paintings whose reverence for Indigenous people had once shocked were now held in contempt, viewed as defiling those same people.
    Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 30 May 2025
  • The sacred plant, long defiled, heralded, as in the time of the Inca and all the ancient civilizations of the Andes, as a gift of the gods.
    Wade Davis, Rolling Stone, 6 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Violate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/violate. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.

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