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Woe vs Profane - What's the difference?

woe | profane |

As a noun woe

is grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

As an adjective woe

is (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful.

As a verb profane is

.

woe

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
  • * Milton
    • Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe , she took.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • [They] weep each other's woe .
  • A curse; a malediction.
  • * South
    • Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

    Derived terms

    * in weal or woe * woeful * woe is me

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
  • * Robert of Brunne
    • His clerk was woe to do that deed.
  • * Chaucer
    • Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.
  • * Spenser
    • And looking up he waxed wondrous woe .

    Anagrams

    *

    profane

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Unclean; ritually impure; unholy, desecrating a holy place or thing.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
    • Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things.
  • Not sacred or holy, unconsecrated; relating to non-religious matters, secular.
  • * I. Disraeli
    • profane authors
  • * Gibbon
    • The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine.
  • Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or undue familiarity; blasphemous, impious. Hence, specifically; Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain; given to swearing; blasphemous; as, a profane person, word, oath, or tongue.
    • a profane person, word, oath, or tongue
  • * Bible, 1 Timothy 1:9

    • Synonyms

    * (obscene) vulgar, inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, lewd * secular * temporal * worldly * unsanctified * unhallowed * unholy * irreligious * irreverent * ungodly * wicked * godless * impious

    Antonyms

    * holy * sacred

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person or thing that is profane.
  • * 1796 , Matthew Lewis, The Monk , Folio Society 1985, p. 244:
    • The nuns were employed in religious duties established in honour of St Clare, and to which no profane was ever admitted.
  • (freemasonry) A person not a Mason.

    • Verb

    (profan)
  • To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.
  • * 1851 ,
    • With one mind, their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man’s knife, as he carved the chief dish before him. I do not suppose that for the world they would have profaned that moment with the slightest observation, even upon so neutral a topic as the weather.
  • To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.

    • Antonyms

    * consecrate * sanctify

    Related terms

    * profanation * profanity English transitive verbs ----