defile

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Stand aside, sons of Eblis, or you shall bite the earth which curses you A wild shout from every height of the defile was the answer.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. transitive verb To make filthy or dirty; pollute: defile a river with sewage.
  2. transitive verb To debase the pureness or excellence of; corrupt: a country landscape that was defiled by urban sprawl.
  3. transitive verb To profane or sully (a reputation, for example).

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

defile:   defiling ·  defiles
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English defilen, alteration (influenced by filen, to befoul, from Old English fȳlan; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots) of defoulen, to trample on, abuse, pollute, from Old French defouler, to trample, full cloth : de-, de- + fouler, to trample, beat down; see full2.
  2. French défiler : dé-, away, off (from Old French de-; see de-) + file, line, file (from Old French filer, to spin thread, march in line; see file1). N., from French défilé, from past participle of défiler.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Altered, in imitation of the simple verb file, of same meaning, from Middle English defoulen, modern obsolete defoul, defile, from Latin de- + Middle English foulen, make foul (whence modern foul, v.), with parallel form fylen, whence modern file: see defoul, defoul.
  2. = Dutch defileren = German defiliren = Danish defilere = Swedish defilera, from Old French defiler, French défiler (= Spanish Portuguese desfilar = Italian difilare), file off, defile, unravel, unstring, from de- privative + filer, spin threads, from fil, a thread, a file, rank, order: see file
  3. Formerly also defilee; from French défilé, a pass, defile, properly past participle of défiler, defile: see defile, v.
 

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/dəˈfaɪl/
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