defile

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make filthy or dirty; pollute: defile a river with sewage.
2. v. To debase the pureness or excellence of; corrupt: a country landscape that was defiled by urban sprawl.
3. v. To profane or sully (a reputation, for example).
4. v. To make unclean or unfit for ceremonial use; desecrate: defile a temple.
5. v. To violate the chastity of.
6. v. To march in single file or in files or columns.
7. n. A narrow gorge or pass that restricts lateral movement, as of troops.
8. n. A march in a line.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make unclean, dirty, or impure; soil; befoul.
2. Figuratively, to sully or tarnish, as reputation, etc.
3. To make ceremonially unclean.
4. To overcome the chastity of; debauch; violate; deflower.
5. To taint, in a moral sense; corrupt; vitiate; debauch; pollute.
6. Synonyms To contaminate, foul, stain, dirty. See taint, v. t.
7. To march off in a line, or by files; file off.
8. In fortification, same as defilade.
9. n. A narrow passage in a mountain region; a gorge through which a body of troops or other persons can pass in a file or narrow line.
10. n. A march by files.
11. n. Synonyms Gorge, Ravine, etc. See valley.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive to make impure; to make dirty.
2. n. A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains.
3. n. A single file, such as of soldiers.
4. v. obsolete, intransitive To march in a single file.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To march off in a line, file by file; to file off.
2. v. (Mil.) Same as defilade.
3. n. Any narrow passage or gorge in which troops can march only in a file, or with a narrow front; a long, narrow pass between hills, rocks, etc.
4. n. (Mil.) The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior. See Defilade.
5. v. To make foul or impure; to make filthy; to dirty; to befoul; to pollute.
6. v. To soil or sully; to tarnish, as reputation; to taint.
7. v. To injure in purity of character; to corrupt.
8. v. To corrupt the chastity of; to debauch; to violate; to rape.
9. v. To make ceremonially unclean; to pollute.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. spot, stain, or pollute
2. v. make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
3. v. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
4. n. a narrow pass (especially one between mountains)