Violates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Fails to act according to a rule, law, or agreement, resulting in noncompliance
2. Acts contrary to established regulations or directives, disregarding required standards
3. Disregards or goes against formal instructions, policies, or legal norms

Etymology: The verb "violate" started out as something much more physical than a rule-breaking. Its Latin ancestor, "violō," meant to treat someone with force, whether that meant bodily harm or mental abuse, and it is closely tied to "vīs," the Latin word for strength, power or violence. Medieval English inherited the idea of defiling or desecrating something sacred, and the sense of breaking a law or agreement came later as that notion of trespassing on something protected widened. "Violates" is simply the third-person singular present form of "violate," so it carries the same history: a verb that began as a word about force done to a person or thing and gradually shifted toward the idea of transgressing a boundary set by rules.

Synonyms: breaches, transgresses, infringes, disobeys, defies

Antonyms: obeys, complies, respects