vandal

A vandal is a person who breaks or destroys something for fun or for revenge. Vandalism is the intentional damaging of property. This is usually regarded as a form of criminal activity.

• Vandals spray painted graffiti on the side of someone’s garage.
• A vandal smashed a car window in the middle of the night.
• Homeowners woke up to find that vandals threw eggs and toilet paper all over their house.
• Vandalism may cost a lot of money to repair, but sometimes cleanup is easy; however, it’s always irritating.
• Victims of vandalism should call their insurance company to file a claim for repairs.

Vandals smashed windows with bats.

The word "vandalize" is a verb:

• Someone vandalized the cars on our street.
• The bathrooms at the school are regularly vandalized.
• Vandalizing public property happens all over the world; in the United States it’s very common. (This sentence uses "vandalizing" as a gerund.

He’s vandalizing a bathroom stall.

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This page was first published on October 22, 2013. It was updated on October 29, 2016.