Vandalise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To willfully cause harm or damage to property or objects in either public or private contexts
2. To intentionally inflict damage on buildings, vehicles, or other items often as an act of defiance or mischief
3. To purposely spoil or ruin someone else's property or possessions usually without permission

Etymology: The verb is simply "vandal" with the suffix "-ise" added, and the interesting history lies in that suffix and in the name it is built on. "Vandal" comes from the Vandals, the Germanic people who sacked Rome in 455, and their name became a byword for wanton destruction largely because of how later writers portrayed them. English took "vandal" as a noun for a destroyer of property, and "vandalise" was formed from it by adding "-ise", a verb-forming ending that English inherited through Middle French from Late Latin "-izare", itself borrowed from Ancient Greek "-izein". That Greek ending, traceable to a very old Indo-European source, is what turns a noun into an action: to vandalise is, in effect, to act like a vandal.

Synonyms: deface, damage, destroy, ruin, desecrate

Antonyms: protect, preserve, repair, restore, conserve