defile
/dəˈfaɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.65 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.
Transitive verb
verb
To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.
Transitive verb
verb
To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "[…] It is an euil birde that defiles his owne neſt, […]"
- "I have ſowed ſackcloth vpon my ſkin, and defiled my horne in the duſt."
- "Spain might now boast that the stain of heresy no longer defiled the hem of her garment. But at what a price was this purchased!"
- "At mankind's feast, I take my place / In solemn, sanctimonious state, / And have the air of saying grace / While I defile the dinner plate."
- "“That's only dirt—it will brush off.” But he looked at me with his haggard hopeless eyes and said— “It is mud. Black, slimy, horrible mud. I am defiled.”"
- "[T]here is no thynge with outt a man that can diffyle hym when hitt entreth in to hym⸝ but thoo thyngꝭ [things] which procede out of a mã [man] are thoſe which defyle a mã."
Etymology
From Late Middle English defilen (“to make dirty, befoul; rape; abuse; destroy; injure; oppress”) [and other forms], a variant of defoulen (“to make dirty, defile, pollute; have sexual intercourse with; rape; etc.”) (compare also defoilen). Defoulen is a blend of Middle English foulen (“to make dirty, soil, pollute”) (from the adjective foul (“dirty, rotten, stinking, corrupt, sinful, guilty”) and Old English fūlian (“to decay”)), and Old French defoler, defouler (“to trample, crush; destroy”), from de- (intensifying prefix) + foler, fouler, fuller (“to trample, tread on; mistreat, oppress, destroy”) (from Vulgar Latin fullāre (“to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating, and pressing)”), from Latin fullō (“person who fulls cloth, fuller”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to blow; to inflate, swell; to bloom, flower”) or Etruscan 𐌘𐌖𐌋𐌖 (φulu)). The English word is analysable as de- + file (“to corrupt; defile”). The Middle English word defilen was probably formed from defoulen on the analogy of befilen (“to make dirty, befoul; corrupt; violate one's chastity; desecrate; slander”) and befoulen (“to make dirty, befoul; violate one's chastity; vilify”), respectively from Old English befȳlan (“to befoul, pollute, defile, make filthy”) (compare also Middle English filen (“to make foul, impure, or unclean, pollute; pollute morally or spiritually; desecrate, profane; have sexual intercourse with; rape; etc.”)) and foulen (“to make dirty, pollute; become dirty; defecate; deface or deform; pollute morally or spiritually; damage, injure; destroy; treat unfairly, oppress; tread on, trample”). Filen and foulen are respectively from Old English fȳlan (“to befoul, defile, pollute”) and Old English fūlian (“to foul”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūlijan (“to make dirty, befoul”) and *fūlēn (“to become foul, decay”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fūlaz (“dirty, foul; rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“foul; rotten”). See foul. Cognates * German Low German befulen (“to defile, sully”) * Dutch bevuilen (“to defile, soil”) * Scots befile (“to befoul, dirty”) * West Frisian befûjle (“to soil”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dəˈfaɪl/
- British English: /dɪˈfaɪl/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Military.
Inflected Forms
defiles (present, singular)
defiling (participle, present)
defiled (participle, past)
defiled (past)
defiles (plural)
defilé (alternative)
defilee (alternative)
défilé (alternative)