violate meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

violate

verb

/ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/

Etymology 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”).

To break or disregard (a rule or convention).

Drinking-and-driving violates the law.
Accessing unauthorized files violates security protocol.

1 more example

In stark opposition to what CBS editorial leadership told staff on Monday, Redstone said that she did not believe Dokoupil had violated the network’s editorial standards when he grilled Coates over the contents of his new book.2024 October 9, Hadas Gold, Liam Reilly and Brian Stelter, “Shari Redstone says CBS leaders made ‘bad mistake’ with handling of Ta-Nehisi Coates interview fallout”, in CNN:

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:

Slang 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:

Derived terms: violative, violatory
Related terms: violable, violation

violate

adj

Etymology From Middle English violat, from Classical Latin violātus.

Archaic, Poetic, In later use 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 Worthies’ Library), volume II (Prose), [London]: […], published 1875, →OCLC, page 479:
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:

2 more examples

Ev’n as the pale hag’s muffled muttering / Draws down the moon from heaven, the ſpell of Fate / Draws me from thee. 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, published 1971, →ISBN, page 33:

Archaic, Poetic, In later use 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 Upon; […], London: […] T[homas] Newcomb for Thomas Heath, […], published 1655, →OCLC, page 169:
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:

2 more examples

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, volume I, New York, N.Y.: J. Seymour, […], published 1814, →OCLC, page 35:
Singh’s sense of abandonment becomes acute when he fails as a politician. He is divided between the fear of black domination and the fear of civilization. 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, volume III, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, →ISBN, page 163:

Archaic, Obsolete, Poetic, In later use 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, […], published 1594, →OCLC, signature C2, recto:
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:

1 more example

[H]e […] nigher came, and touched her throat, and with hands violate // Undid the cuirass, and the crocus gown, / And bared the breasts of polished ivory, […]1881, Oscar Wilde, “Charmides”, in Poems, London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, pages 108–109:

Derived terms: unviolate
Related terms: inviolate

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