When a space is violated, it is intruded upon. When a law is violated, someone is breaking it. You can violate a religious place by desecrating it. Violating a person is synonymous with raping that person. But what do people mean when they say "I felt violated (by)" or "I feel violated"?
To me, it sounds like someone's feelings might have been hurt severely by somebody else, with the result of that someone being very upset (i.e. "p*ssed off") - but I can't back that up with any of these dictionaries:
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violated
- http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/violate?q=violated
- http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/violate
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/violate
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/violated
Am I completely wrong with my assumption of feeling hurt? If not, can someone substantiate that assumption with a reference?
Only Your Dictionary seems to go in that direction:
to offend, insult, or outrage: to violate one's sense of decency
but to me, that sentence, "I felt violated", is more a reaction of how one was treated (overall, e.g. the manner in which one was talked to), rather than an individual offensive act... Is "feeling violated" used in that sense/nuance?
When would you say "I felt violated"?