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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
vandal
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After last season's playoff loss to the Pacers, vandals spray-painted racial epithets in Iverson's backyard.
▪ It stood unused for some time and was burnt down by vandals in 1970.
▪ Previously a council house bought by its owners; it's now prey to vandals and a danger to inquisitive children.
▪ They're not professional vandals, just people who see their world threatened by legislation.
▪ Thieves and vandals are costing churches millions of pounds each year.
▪ This will not only protect the notice face from the weather but also deter the vandal.
▪ Trespassers and vandals just do not expect to be brought to book by passengers on a train.
▪ We wanted to go inside the church on the hill but he told us it had to be kept locked because of vandals.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vandal

Vandal \Van"dal\, Vandalic \Van*dal"ic\, a. Of or pertaining to the Vandals; resembling the Vandals in barbarism and destructiveness.

Vandal

Vandal \Van"dal\, n. [L. Vandalus, Vandalius; of Teutonic origin, and probably originally signifying, a wanderer. Cf. Wander.]

  1. (Anc. Hist.) One of a Teutonic race, formerly dwelling on the south shore of the Baltic, the most barbarous and fierce of the northern nations that plundered Rome in the 5th century, notorious for destroying the monuments of art and literature.

  2. Hence, one who willfully destroys or defaces any work of art or literature.

    The Vandals of our isle, Sworn foes to sense and law.
    --Cowper.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
vandal

1660s, "willful destroyer of what is beautiful or venerable," from Vandals, name of the Germanic tribe that sacked Rome in 455 under Genseric, from Latin Vandalus (plural Vandali), from the tribe's name for itself (Old English Wendlas), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *wandljaz "wanderer." The literal historical sense in English is recorded from 1550s.\n\nThere does not seem to be in the story of the capture of Rome by the Vandals any justification for the charge of willful and objectless destruction of public buildings which is implied in the word 'vandalism.' It is probable that this charge grew out of the fierce persecution which was carried on by [the Vandal king] Gaiseric and his son against the Catholic Christians, and which is the darkest stain on their characters.

[" Encyclopaedia Britannica ," 13th ed., 1926]

Wiktionary
vandal
  1. 1 Of the particular ancient Germanic tribe. 2 Carelessly destructive. n. A person who needlessly destroys or damages other people's property. v

  2. 1 To become a vandal. 2 (misspelling of vandalize English)

WordNet
vandal
  1. n. someone who willfully destroys or defaces property

  2. a member of the Germanic people who overran Gaul and Spain and North Africa and sacked Rome in 455

Wikipedia
Vandal (disambiguation)

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe.

Vandal may also refer to:

In people:

  • Somebody who commits vandalism
  • Albert Vandal, French count and historian
  • Dan Vandal (born 1960), Canadian politician
  • Liz Vandal (born 1965), Canadian fashion designer

In music:

  • Vandal (record producer), electronica & breakbeat DJ/producer from Sheffield, England
  • The Vandals, a well-known American rock band
  • The Vandals (UK band) - a British rock band

In other contexts:

  • Idaho Vandals, the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Idaho
  • Vandals (secret society), a secret society at the University of Ghana
  • Vandal Hearts, a Japanese tactical role-playing video game
  • Vandal (tanker), a Russian oil tanker that used a Diesel engine as early as 1903
  • The MQM-8G Vandal supersonic drone was made from converted RIM-8 Talos missiles
  • Vandal Savage a fictional villain in comics published by DC Comics
  • The Vandals, an evil alien species of anthropomorphic predators from the TV show Hot Wheels Battle Force 5
Vandal (ship)
  • HMS Vandal (P64), a British submarine launched in 1942 and lost in 1943
  • Vandal, a Russian diesel-powered tanker launched in 1903
Vandal (record producer)

Vandal is a Techno, Breakbeat and Electronica producer from Sheffield, England. He is currently recording for Meat Katie's LOT49 record label.

Vandal (band)

Vandal were an American glam metal band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in the mid 1980s (1984). Vandal was founded by guitarist Dan Donegan, bassist Bob Feddersen, drummer John Sullivan, and vocalist Bob Johnson. John Sullivan & Bob Feddersen went on to form hard rock band Loudmouth. Steve "Fuzz" Kmack and Dan Donegan went on to found the then- nu metal band Disturbed circa 1995.

Usage examples of "vandal".

Such indeed was the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful companions, and of more than one third of the various multitude of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who adhered to the standard of their general.

The Vandals and the Ostrogoths persevered in the profession of Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms which they had founded in Africa and Italy.

If Basiliscus had seized the moment of consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital, Carthage must have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was extinguished.

The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor power, nor perhaps inclination, to perpetrate.

What he failed to foresee was that the freed Vandal, in lunatic industrialized vengeance, would set out to nail eleven million Christs to the cross.

Yet I strongly suspect that their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous, and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians, has induced them to describe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of three hundred years since the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals.

Five hundred episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors.

Vandals, Huns, Gepidae, Lombards, Heruli all came and went without leaving any notable traces.

But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful execution of a treaty for which his honor had been pledged to the king of the Vandals.

Look at Rome under the soldier emperors, and Assyria under Sardanapalus, and Egypt under the later Ramessids, and the Vandal African empire under Gelimer.

Since I had previously known men of most of the Germanic nationalities, I could recognize a Burgund, a Frank, a Vandal, a Gepid, a Suevian, even though they dressed and spoke and even looked much alike.

Burgund lands, but we also had numerous Franks and Vandals, several Suevians and a few representatives of other Germanic nations and tribes.

Mediterranean: with the Vandals in Africa, the Suevians in Hispania, the Roman colonies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia Petraea.

Four days later, vandals entered the site and placed live alligators in three portable toilets.

Vandals and thieves had been at work for centuries, but teams of archeologists were now trying to retrieve details of everyday life during the age of the dictators.