Word of the Day

: October 27, 2022

defile

verb dih-FYLE

What It Means

Defile means “to make (something) dirty.” It can also mean “to take away or ruin the purity, honor, or goodness of (something or someone important).”

// Students often threw their trash on the ground, defiling the campus in the process.

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defile in Context

“Now, in an about-face, the agency is preparing to rework those regulations, potentially allowing state officials to take a broader array of environmental concerns ... into account when deciding whether to approve major construction that could defile bodies of water.” — Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post, 27 May 2021

Did You Know?

The verb defile (unrelated to this verb defile or its related noun) has a number of uses that are all variations on the idea of making something unclean or impure. These meanings echo the word’s Middle English and Anglo-French ancestry, where defilement is connected to figurative and literal trampling. The ultimate Anglo-French root is fuller, or foller, which means “to trample under foot,” “to oppress”—or literally, “to full.” Full in this case is a technical term: when you full woolen cloth you shrink and thicken it by moistening, heating, and pressing it. Originally, the pressing part was done by trampling it with the feet.