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r 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.

minals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege. So sacred was the church to some, that it had the right of an asylum or sanctuary. Ayliffe.

n a delinquent for offending against a ban; as, a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes. Ban of the empire (German Hist.), an imperial interdict by which political rights and privileges, as those of a prince, city, or district, were taken away.

The act of dissecting an animal or plant; as, dissection of the human body was held sacrilege till the time of Francis I.

eat great offense; -- applied to deeds or to character. It were most heinous and accursed sacrilege. Hooker. How heinous had the fact been, how deserving Contempt! Milton.

Violating sacred things; polluted with sacrilege; involving sacrilege; profane; impious. Above the reach of sacrilegious hands. pope. -- Sac`ri*le"gious*ly, adv. -- Sac`ri*le"gious*ness, n.

One guilty of sacrilege.

of doing wrong or ofending; nice regard to exactness and propierty; precision. The first sacrilege is looked on with horror; but when they have made the breach, their scrupulosity soon retires. Dr. H. More. Careful, even to scrupulosity, . . . to keep their Sabbath. South.