defile
/'di:fail/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
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.
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
- a narrow pass (especially one between mountains)
Verb
- spot, stain, or pollute
- The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it
- 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
- place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
- sully someone's reputation