From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Sacrilege \Sac"ri*lege\, noun [F. sacril['e]ge, L. sacrilegium, from sacrilegus that steals, properly, gathers or picks up, sacred things; sacer sacred + legere to gather, pick up. See {Sacred}, and {Legend}.] The sin or crime of violating or profaning sacred things; the alienating to laymen, or to common purposes, what has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses.
And the hid treasures in her sacred tomb With sacrilege to dig. --Spenser.
Families raised upon the ruins of churches, and enriched with the spoils of sacrilege. --South.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character; "desecration of the Holy Sabbath" [syn: {profanation}, {desecration}, {blasphemy}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "sacrilege": abomination, abuse, atrocity, befouling, befoulment, blasphemousness, blasphemy, contamination, crime, debasement, defilement, desecration, disgrace, dishonoring, disrespect, fouling, heresy, ignominy, impiety, impiousness, infamy, irreverence, maltreatment, misuse, offense, outrage, perversion, pity, profanation, profaneness, profanity, prostitution, sacrilegiousness, scandal, secularization, shame, sin, terrible thing, violation, vitiation
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