Definition

1. Verb:

   • To make dirty, unclean, or impure: To physically contaminate or pollute something, often a natural resource or environment.
   • To violate the sanctity or purity of; to desecrate: To treat something sacred or highly respected with irreverence or disrespect, thereby damaging its honor or purity.
   • To corrupt morally; to sully: To tarnish or damage someone's reputation, honor, or character.

2. Noun:

   • A narrow gorge or pass, especially between mountains: A long, narrow passage, often with steep sides, that restricts movement to a single file.

Usage and Examples

• Verb:

  • The factory waste defiled the once-pristine river. (The factory waste made the river dirty and polluted.)
  • Vandals defiled the ancient temple with graffiti. (Vandals desecrated the sacred temple.)
  • The scandal defiled the politician's long-standing reputation for integrity. (The scandal sullied the politician's good name.)

• Noun:

  • The troops marched through the mountain defile in single file. (The soldiers moved through the narrow mountain pass one after another.)

Advanced Usage

• "To defile oneself": To engage in an activity that corrupts one's own moral or physical purity.
  • He felt he had defiled himself by accepting the bribe.
• Used in formal, literary, or journalistic contexts to describe serious acts of pollution, desecration, or moral corruption. The verb often carries a strong negative connotation of violation.

Variants and Related Words

• Defiler (noun): A person or thing that defiles.
  • The defilers of the monument were never caught.
• Defilement (noun): The act of defiling or the state of being defiled.
  • The defilement of the water source caused a public health crisis.

Synonyms

• Verb: Pollute, contaminate, sully, tarnish, desecrate, profane, corrupt, stain.
• Noun: Gorge, canyon, pass, ravine.

Antonyms

• Verb: Purify, cleanse, sanctify, honor, respect.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• "Defile the air": To pollute the atmosphere or, metaphorically, to say something offensive or blasphemous.
  • His hateful speech defiled the air of the assembly.
• While "defile" itself is not commonly used in phrasal verbs, its synonyms are (e.g., , ). The word "defile" is typically used as a standalone verb.

Noun

1. a narrow pass (especially one between mountains)

Verb

1. spot, stain, or pollute
   • The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it
2. make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
   • The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air
   • Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man
3. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
   • sully someone's reputation