adj. 1 irreverent, sacrilegious, blasphemous, idolatrous, irreligious, infidel, heathen, unbelieving, disbelieving, pagan, atheist(ic), impious, godless, ungodly, sinful, wicked, iniquitous, contemptuous, disrespectful The faithful attacked anyone who was seen to perform a profane act 2 unsanctified, unholy, unconsecrated, defiled, impure, unclean, unhallowed, non-religious, non-sacred, unsacred; lay, non-clerical, secular, temporal; Judaism tref or treif or treifa, non-kosher The missionaries persuaded them to abandon their profane rites and practices 3 bad, dirty, filthy, smutty, foul, foul-mouthed, obscene, vulgar, coarse, uncouth, low, taboo, blasphemous, bawdy, ribald, scurrilous, off colour, immodest, improper, naughty, indecent, unprintable, unmentionable, indecorous, indelicate, common; abusive, vituperative, venomous, thersitical, Literary Fescennine, Colloq blue The boy was sent home from school for using profane language
v. 4 debase, contaminate, pollute, taint, vitiate, degrade, defile, desecrate, violate, pervert, corrupt They swore undying retribution against those who had profaned their temple