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defile

verb
/dɪˈfaɪl/UK/dəˈfaɪl/US

Etymology

From Late Middle English defilen (“to make dirty, befoul; rape; abuse; destroy; injure; oppress”) [and other forms], a variant of defoulen (“to make dirty, defile, pollute; have sexual intercourse with; rape; etc.”) (compare also defoilen). Defoulen is a blend of Middle English foulen (“to make dirty, soil, pollute”) (from the adjective foul (“dirty, rotten, stinking, corrupt, sinful, guilty”) and Old English fūlian (“to decay”)), and Old French defoler, defouler (“to trample, crush; destroy”), from de- (intensifying prefix) + foler, fouler, fuller (“to trample, tread on; mistreat, oppress, destroy”) (from Vulgar Latin fullāre (“to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating, and pressing)”), from Latin fullō (“person who fulls cloth, fuller”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to blow; to inflate, swell; to bloom, flower”) or Etruscan 𐌘𐌖𐌋𐌖 (φulu)). The English word is analysable as de- + file (“to corrupt; defile”). The Middle English word defilen was probably formed from defoulen on the analogy of befilen (“to make dirty, befoul; corrupt; violate one's chastity; desecrate; slander”) and befoulen (“to make dirty, befoul; violate one's chastity; vilify”), respectively from Old English befȳlan (“to befoul, pollute, defile, make filthy”) (compare also Middle English filen (“to make foul, impure, or unclean, pollute; pollute morally or spiritually; desecrate, profane; have sexual intercourse with; rape; etc.”)) and foulen (“to make dirty, pollute; become dirty; defecate; deface or deform; pollute morally or spiritually; damage, injure; destroy; treat unfairly, oppress; tread on, trample”). Filen and foulen are respectively from Old English fȳlan (“to befoul, defile, pollute”) and Old English fūlian (“to foul”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūlijan (“to make dirty, befoul”) and *fūlēn (“to become foul, decay”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fūlaz (“dirty, foul; rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“foul; rotten”). See foul. Cognates * German Low German befulen (“to defile, sully”) * Dutch bevuilen (“to defile, soil”) * Scots befile (“to befoul, dirty”) * West Frisian befûjle (“to soil”)

  1. derived from *puH-✻ — “foul; rotten”
  2. derived from *fūlaz✻ — “dirty, foul; rotten”
  3. derived from *fūlijan✻ — “to make dirty, befoul”
  4. derived from fūlian — “to foul”
  5. derived from fȳlan — “to befoul, defile, pollute”
  6. derived from 𐌘𐌖𐌋𐌖
  7. derived from *bʰleh₃-✻ — “to blow; to inflate, swell; to bloom, flower”
  8. derived from fullō — “person who fulls cloth, fuller”
  9. derived from fullāre — “to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating, and pressing)”
  10. derived from defoler
  11. derived from fūlian — “to decay”
  12. derived from foulen — “to make dirty, soil, pollute”
  13. inherited from defilen — “to make dirty, befoul; rape; abuse; destroy; injure; oppress”

Definitions

  1. To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean

    To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.

    • […] It is an euil birde that defiles his owne neſt, […]
    • I have ſowed ſackcloth vpon my ſkin, and defiled my horne in the duſt.
    • Spain might now boast that the stain of heresy no longer defiled the hem of her garment. But at what a price was this purchased!

  2. To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean

    To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.

    • [T]here is no thynge with outt a man that can diffyle hym when hitt entreth in to hym⸝ but thoo thyngꝭ [things] which procede out of a mã [man] are thoſe which defyle a mã.

  3. To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special)

    To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.

    • To urinate on someone’s grave is an example of a way to defile it.
    • And all yͤ chiefe amonge the preſtes, and the people, multiplyed their ſynnes, acordinge to all the abhominacions of the Heythen, and dyfyled the houſe of the LORDE, which he had ſanctified at Jeruſalem.
    • Remember them, O my God, becauſe they haue defiled the Prieſthood, and the couenant of the Prieſthood, and of the Leuites.
  4. ›+ 12 more definitions

    1. To cause (something or someone) to become ritually unclean.

      • That which dieth of it ſelfe, or is torne with beaſts, hee ſhall not eate to defile himſelfe therewith: I am the Lord.

    2. To deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually

      To deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually; to deflower, to rape.

      • The serial rapist kidnapped and defiled a six-year-old girl.
      • And when Shechem the ſonne of Hamor the Hiuite, prince of the countrey ſaw her [Dinah], he tooke her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

    3. To dishonour (someone).

      • Come recreant, come thou childe, / Ile vvhippe thee vvith a rodde. He is defil'd, / That dravves a ſvvord on thee.
      • [H]is Character may be Defiled by ſuch Men and dirty Hands as thoſe of the Obſervator, or ſuch as employ him, […]

    4. To become dirty or unclean.

      • [Y]ou vvill find if you do not daily ſvveep you houſes, they vvill defile; and the cob-vvebs they vvill grovv; the Spiders vvill be at vvork; and though your hearts be never ſo pure, Spiders vvill creep into them, […]

    5. To cause uncleanliness

      To cause uncleanliness; specifically, to pass feces; to defecate.

      • There is a thing Harry, vvhich thou haſt often heard of, and it is knovvne to many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch (as ancient vvriters do report) doth defile, ſo doth the companie thou keepeſt: […]

    6. To march in a single file or line

      To march in a single file or line; to file.

      • Without delay, he briſkly attacked them, as they were defiling from a lane and forming themſelves.
      • Several bodies of troops defiled towards the frontiers under various pretences; and the whole being ſuddenly aſſembled, formed an army with which the duke of Guiſe [Francis, Duke of Guise] made an unexpected march towards Calais.
      • As the multitude defiled into the square, the inquisitors took their place on the seats prepared for their reception.

    7. To march across (a place) in files or lines.

    8. A narrow passage or way (originally (military), one which soldiers could only march…

      A narrow passage or way (originally (military), one which soldiers could only march through in a single file or line), especially a narrow gorge or pass between mountains.

      • Conſtantine had taken poſt in a defile about half a mile in breadth, between a ſteep hill and a deep moraſs, and in that ſituation he ſteadily expected and repulſed the firſt attack of the enemy.
      • […] I roam / By Thrasimene's lake, in the defiles / Fatal to Roman rashness, more at home; […]

    9. An act of marching in files or lines.

    10. A single file of soldiers

      A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file.

    11. Synonym of defilade (“to fortify (something) as a protection from enfilading fire”).

    12. An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order…

      An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.

The neighborhood

Derived

defilable, defilement, defiler, defiling, defilingly

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at defile. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01defile02dirty03grime04genre05assign06select07top-notch08notch

A definitional loop anchored at defile. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at defile

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA