defile
Contents
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English defilen (“to make dirty”), alteration (due to Middle English defoulen, defoilen (“to trample, abuse”)) of Middle English befilen (“to defile, make foul”), from Old English befȳlan (“to befoul, defile”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- + *fūlijaną (“to defile, make filthy”). Cognate with Dutch bevuilen (“to defile, soil”). More at be-, file, foul.
Verb[edit]
defile (third-person singular simple present defiles, present participle defiling, simple past and past participle defiled)
- (transitive) To make unclean, dirty, or impure; soil; befoul.
- 1611, “Job 16:15”, in King James Bible:
- I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, And defiled my horn in the dust.
- 1911, The Forerunner, volume 2, page 271:
- “That's only dirt—it will brush off.” But he looked at me with his haggard hopeless eyes and said—— “It is mud. Black, slimy, horrible mud. I am defiled."
- (transitive) To vandalize or add inappropriate contents to something considered sacred or special; desecrate
- To urinate on someone's grave is an example of a way to defile it.
- (transitive) To deprive or ruin someone's (sexual) purity or chastity, often not consensually; stain; tarnish; mar; rape
- The serial rapist kidnapped and defiled a six-year-old girl.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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Etymology 2[edit]
Earlier defilee, from French défilé, from défiler (“to march past”), from file (“file”).
Noun[edit]
defile (plural defiles)
- A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains
- Plutarch, "Life of Nicias", tr. Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin, p. 239:
- The next morning the enemy were on the march before him, seized the defiles, blocked the fords of the rivers, destroyed the bridges, and sent out cavalry to patrol the open ground, so as to oppose the Athenians at every step as they retreated.
- Plutarch, "Life of Nicias", tr. Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin, p. 239:
- A single file, such as of soldiers.
- The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.
Translations[edit]
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also[edit]
Verb[edit]
defile (third-person singular simple present defiles, present participle defiling, simple past and past participle defiled)
- (archaic, intransitive) To march in a single file.
- 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, p.138:
- They defiled down a gully to the water and bunched and jerked their noses at it and came back.
- 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, p.138:
Translations[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Serbo-Croatian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
defìlē m (Cyrillic spelling дефѝле̄)
Declension[edit]
References[edit]
- “defile” in Hrvatski jezični portal
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms derived from French
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with multiple etymologies
- en:Landforms
- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from French
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns