vitiate
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From vitiātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin vitiō (“damage, spoil”), from vitium (“vice”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Verb
vitiate (third-person singular simple present vitiates, present participle vitiating, simple past and past participle vitiated)
- (transitive) to spoil, make faulty; to reduce the value, quality, or effectiveness of something
- 1997: ‘Mr Rose,’ says the Physician, ‘this man was brought to us from Russia. Precisely such a case of vitiated judgment as I describe at length in my Treatise on Madness. Mayhap you have read it?’ — Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain
- (transitive) to debase or morally corrupt
- (transitive, archaic) to violate, to rape
- 1965: ‘Crush the cockatrice,’ he groaned, from his death-cell. ‘I am dead in law’ – but of the girl he denied that he had ‘attempted to vitiate her at Nine years old’; for ‘upon the word of a dying man, both her Eyes did see, and her Hands did act in all that was done’. — John Fowles, The Magus
- (transitive) to make something ineffective, to invalidate
- 1734, William Stukeley, Of the Gout, page 78:
- ...all the hinges of the animal frame are subverted, every animal function is vitiated; the carcass retains but just life enough to make it capable of suffering.
- 1734, William Stukeley, Of the Gout, page 78:
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
to debase or morally corrupt
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to violate, to rape
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[edit] External links
- vitiate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- vitiate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- vitiate at OneLook Dictionary Search
[edit] Latin
[edit] Verb
vitiāte
- first-person plural present active imperative of vitiō
