Wiktionary

violate

See also: Violâte

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Etymology 1

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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”).

Verb

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violate (third-person singular simple present violates, present participle violating, simple past and past participle violated)

  1. (transitive) To break or disregard (a rule or convention).
    Antonyms: comply, obey
    Drinking-and-driving violates the law.
    Accessing unauthorized files violates security protocol.
    • 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[1]:
      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.
  2. (transitive) To rape.
    Synonyms: ravish, viole, vitiate; see also Thesaurus:rape
    • 1796, Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk:
      That Antonia whom you violated, was your Sister! That Elvira whom you murdered, gave you birth! Tremble, abandoned Hypocrite! Inhuman Parricide! Incestuous Ravisher!
    • 1914, “Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars”, in Carnegie Report‎[2], Washington, DC: The Endowment:
      Bulgarian soldiers in the meantime entered Turkish houses, violated the women and girls and stole everything they could lay their hands on.
  3. (transitive, prison slang) To cite (a person) for a parole violation.
    • 2009, Shakti Belway, Bearing Witness, page 12:
      If you don't have a job, you can't pay the money, then you get violated and have to go back to prison.
    • 2014, Juanita Díaz-Cotto, Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice: Voices from El Barrio, page 165:
      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.
Conjugation
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Conjugation of violate
infinitive (to) violate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular violate violated
2nd-person singular violate, violatest† violated, violatedst†
3rd-person singular violates, violateth† violated
plural violate
subjunctive violate violated
imperative violate —
participles violating violated

† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English violat, from Classical Latin violātus.[1]

Adjective

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violate (comparative more violate, superlative most violate) (now rare; chiefly poetic in later use)

  1. Subject to violation.
    • 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:
      [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.
    • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part VI”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 123:
      And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary / Is violate, our laws broken: […]
    • 1880, William Hurrell Mallock, “Æneas to Dido”, in Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza VI, page 96:
      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!
    • 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:
      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.
  2. Synonym of violated.
    • 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:
      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, […]
    • 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:
      And this Promiſe had never been accompliſhed, unleſs Jeſus, as the great promiſed Meſſiah, had taken off the Doom of the violate Law, […]
    • 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:
      By him the violate law spoke out / Its thunders; […]
    • 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:
      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.
  3. (obsolete) Morally impure.
    • 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:
      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, […]
    • 1856, Harriet Eleanor Hamilton King, “Agesilao Milano”, in The Disciples, London: Henry S[amuel] King & Co. […], published 1873, →OCLC, page 300:
      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.
    • 1881, Oscar Wilde, “Charmides”, in Poems, London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, pages 108–109:
      [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, […]
Derived terms
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References

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  1. ^ “violate, adj.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Further reading

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Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /vi.oˈla.te/, /vjoˈla.te/[1]
  • Rhymes: -ate
  • Hyphenation: vi‧o‧là‧te, vio‧là‧te

Etymology 1

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Verb

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violate

  1. inflection of violare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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violate f pl

  1. feminine plural of violato

References

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  1. ^ violare in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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violāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of violō

Spanish

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Verb

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violate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of violar combined with te
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