violate
/ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/
violate verb: to break or disregard (a rule or convention).
Verb
violate (third-person singular simple present violates, present participle violating, simple past and past participle violated)
- To break or disregard (a rule or convention).
- Drinking-and-driving violates the law.
- Accessing unauthorized files violates security protocol.
- To rape.
- That Antonia whom you violated, was your Sister! That Elvira whom you murdered, gave you birth! Tremble, abandoned Hypocrite! Inhuman Parricide! Incestuous Ravisher!1796, Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk
- Bulgarian soldiers in the meantime entered Turkish houses, violated the women and girls and stole everything they could lay their hands on.1914, “Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars”, in Carnegie Report, Washington, DC: The Endowment
- To cite (a person) for a parole violation.
- If you don't have a job, you can't pay the money, then you get violated and have to go back to prison.2009, Shakti Belway, Bearing Witness, page 12
- Estela: Well, they'd take me to jail, I'd violate, and I go to prison. And maybe I get violated for six months, eight months . . . maybe 30 days, 60 days . . . You know, whatever the parole officer recommended for me, I got.2014, Juanita Díaz-Cotto, Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice: Voices from El Barrio, page 165
Adjective
violate (comparative more violate, superlative most violate)
- Subject to violation.
- [I]t was declared and resolved to be an undouted ancient standing order, not to be violate, and so was entred and established upon the booke.1675 November 14 (Gregorian calendar), Andrew Marvell, “Letter CCLVII. To the Same.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell […] (The Fuller...
- And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary / Is violate, our laws broken: […]1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part VI”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 123
- Synonym of violated.
- My Fathers blood, Agneſias languiſhing griefs, my violate marriage, and this late contempt, raiſed ſeveral paſſions, which like ſo many torrents, overthrew all obſtacles that withſtood the rapacity of their courſe, […]c. 1645 (date written), [William Sales], “Book VI. Continuation of the Story of Cenodoxius.”, in Theophania: or Severall Modern Histories Represented by Way of Romance: and Politickly Discours’d...
- And this Promiſe had never been accompliſhed, unleſs Jeſus, as the great promiſed Meſſiah, had taken off the Doom of the violate Law, […]1734, William Crawfurd, “Preface: […]”, in A Short Manual against the Infidelity of This Age. […], Edinburgh: […] R[obert] Fleming, and sold at the Shop of Alexander Kincaid, →OCLC, pages 62–63
- Synonyms:
- violated
- Morally impure.
- The bruite of which her rare perfections ran, […] laſtly reſted in the princes eares, / Who […] / Inuades my caſtell when I was at reſt, / And bare my daughter thence with violate hands, / Vnto his pallace where ſhe doth remaine, […]a. 1581 (date written), [Richard Farrant], The Warres of Cyrus King of Persia, against Antiochus King of Assyria, with the Tragicall Ende of Panthæa. […], London: […] E. A. for William Blackwal, […]...
- Naples is glad because her king has fallen / By my hand first; / Take home the lesson to thee, faithless warden, / The foremost and the worst, / Who makest of this lovely land, God’s garden, / A nation violate, corrupt, accurst.1856, Harriet Eleanor Hamilton King, “Agesilao Milano”, in The Disciples, London: Henry S[amuel] King & Co. […], published 1873, →OCLC, page 300
violate meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
violate in Tamil
- சட்டத்தின் வரம்பு கட, மீறு
violate in Marathi
- उल्लंघन करणे
violate in Urdu
- دخل انداز ہونا, ہتک حرمت کرنا, عصمت دری کرنا, خلل ڈالنا, خلاف ورزی کرنا, توڑنا
violate in Bengali
- লঙ্ঘন করা
More languagesFewer languages
- violate in Telugu
- అతిక్రమించు atikramiñcu
- violate in Malayalam
- അതിലംഘിക്കുക, ദുഷിപ്പിക്കുക
- violate in Kannada
- ಮುರಿ, ತಪ್ಪು, ಗೌರವಿಸದಿರು, ಅತಿಕ್ರಮಿಸು
- violate in Punjabi
- ਤੋੜਨਾ toṛnā
- violate in Odia
- ଉଲ୍ଲଙ୍ଘନ କରନ୍ତୁ
- violate in Sanskrit
- रुप्यति rúpyati, भिनत्ति bhinátti
- violate in Nepali
- उल्लङ्घन गर्ने, उल्लङ्घन गर्नुहोस्
- violate in Tagalog
- lumabag, sumuway, labagin, suwayin
- violate in Arabic
- اِنْتَهَكَ intahaka
- violate in Vietnamese
- xâm phạm
Examples of violate in a sentence
- Our bonds in burſting ſtring, / And all are violate!1880, William Hurrell Mallock, “Æneas to Dido”, in Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza VI, page 96:
- Let no thing escape; / Catch these for me before we all are flown, / Torn, violate, by time’s triumphal rape: / Run swift into the wheeling day; the night / Takes all of us.1945, Charles Edward Butler, “Prelude to My Poem”, in Cut Is the Branch (The Yale Series of Younger Poets; 43), New York, N.Y.: AMS Press...
- By him the violate law spoke out / Its thunders; […]1806, “New Canaan, Con[necticut]”, in Timothy Alden, compiler, A Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions with Occasional Notes...
- He is the betrayed, the violate and the entrapped individual.2002, Veena Singh, “A Journey of Rejection: V.S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men”, in Mohit K[umar] Ray, editor, V.S. Naipaul: Critical Essays...
Synonyms of violate
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of violate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | violates |
| present participle | violating |
| past participle | violated |
| past | violated |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | violatest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | violatedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | violateth |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more violate |
| superlative | most violate |
Origin of violate
From Middle English violaten (“to defile, render impure”), from violat(e) (“defiled, desecrated”, also used as the past participle of violaten) + -en, borrowed from Latin violātus, perfect passive participle of violō (“to treat with violence (whether bodily or mental)”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Ultimately from vīs (“strength, power, force, violence”).
From Middle English violat, from Classical Latin violātus.
Words formed from violate
Questions about violate
- What does violate mean?
- Violate means to break or disregard (a rule or convention).
- What is violate in Tamil?
- Violate in Tamil is சட்டத்தின் வரம்பு கட, மீறு. See Violate meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use violate in a sentence?
- Our bonds in burſting ſtring, / And all are violate!
- What part of speech is violate?
- Violate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce violate?
- Violate is pronounced /ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/.
- What is the past tense of violate?
- The past tense of violate is violated.
Words near violate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: violate (page history and authors); violate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); violate (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); violate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); violate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); violate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); violate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਤੋੜਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); violate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); भिनत्ति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); violate (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-violate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “violate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/violate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.