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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 If not, aggressive autocrats around the world could learn that violating the sovereignty of weaker neighbors pays off. Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2025 The complaint alleges that Jones violated client confidentiality by sharing private communications that later became central evidence in a separate lawsuit filed by Lively. Elizabeth Rosner, People.com, 21 Mar. 2025 The truth was somewhere in the middle: No, Kid Nation was never officially charged with violating child labor laws, but one kid did accidentally drink bleach — and another sustained a minor burn while cooking. Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 20 Mar. 2025 Simmons also faces additional litigation from at least six other accusers who claim the Def Jam co-founder violated the terms of their confidential settlements, failing to pay them a combined total of more than $11 million. Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 13 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for violate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for violate
Verb
  • Alexandra Koch is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital.
    Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Two judges have found the administration broke federal laws in its handling of the layoffs and ordered workers reinstated.
    Time, Time, 29 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • The company says that Greenpeace included false statements in a letter to the company’s banks that asserted construction of the pipeline desecrated tribal burial grounds and important cultural sites.
    Jennifer Safstrom, The Conversation, 11 Mar. 2025
  • How could the Chicago Archdiocese allow the Rev. Michael Pfleger to desecrate sacred parish grounds built on American soil and off the sweat of immigrants?
    Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • But my mom was raped more than 200 times during ten years by more than 70 different men.
    Christine Pelisek, People.com, 17 Mar. 2025
  • The case comes less than two months after a 44-year-old woman from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, filed a criminal report with the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office alleging she was raped twice in her cabin, each time by a crew member, on an eight-day cruise that started and ended at PortMiami.
    Vinod Sreeharsha, Miami Herald, 15 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Swollen rivers could breach their banks in the coming days as floodwater filters back into area waterways.
    Karina Tsui, CNN Money, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Agents first tried to knock and announce their presence, then breached the front and back doors of the home, the affidavit said.
    Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 27 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Af Klint edited her own notebooks later in life, rewriting or destroying entire passages and exorcising biographical details.
    Jay Cheshes, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea Thursday as fire crews struggled to contain the country's worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 28 people, forced at least 37,800 to flee their homes and destroyed thousands of structures and vehicles.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 28 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Facebook) Yolanda was seen on surveillance video arguing with Rebecca and physically assaulting her on the day of the fatal stabbing.
    Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 23 Mar. 2025
  • According to police, Yolanda was captured on surveillance camera allegedly arguing with and physically assaulting Rebecca, then fleeing the residence before her wife’s mother found her.
    Bailey Richards, People.com, 23 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Its attempt to designate Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins as acting special counsel was not an effort to contravene the lower court’s prohibition on recognizing a different special counsel because this was merely signaling who would take over if Dellinger was out (an inane argument).
    New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 18 Feb. 2025
  • And in a matter of days—and contravening laws and budgets passed by Congress—the Trump Administration has attempted not simply to redirect U.S.A.I.D.’s policy but to gut the agency’s capacity.
    Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Last Blood is a straightforward revenge story about a broken man who vows to kill those who defiled and murdered his surrogate niece.
    Randall Colburn, EW.com, 20 Feb. 2025
  • William adamantly reminds his father that Jane was trying to save her sister from being defiled by a man who had paid to take her maidenhead.
    Lincee Ray, EW.com, 18 Jan. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Violate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/violate. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.

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