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/dɪˈfaɪl/ · verb
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!
At mankind's feast, I take my place / In solemn, sanctimonious state, / And have the air of saying grace / While I defile the dinner plate.
“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.”
[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.
Chr[istian]. VVhy, I tro you did not conſent to her deſires? / Faith[full]. No, not to defile my ſelf; for I remembred an old vvriting that I had ſeen, vvhich ſaith, Her ſteps take hold of Hell. [Proverbs 5:5] So I ſhut mine eyes, becauſe I vvould not be bevvitched with her looks: [Job 31:1] then ſhe railed on me, and I vvent my vvay.
To urinate on someone’s grave is an example of a way to defile it.
Use defile when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Defile means To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil..
Common synonyms include contaminate, pollute, spoil, sully.
Possible antonyms include clean, purify, cleanse, hallow.
[…] It is an euil birde that defiles his owne neſt, […]
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