vitiate

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Verb 1.3.1 Translations

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From the past participle stem of Latin vitiare, from vitium ‘vice’.

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /'vɪʃi:eɪt/

[edit] Verb

to vitiate (third-person singular simple present vitiates, present participle vitiating, simple past and past participle vitiated)

1. (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
2. (transitive) to debase or morally corrupt
3. (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
4. (transitive) to make something ineffective, to invalidate

[edit] Translations