defile

Meaning

1. To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.
2. To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.
3. To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.
4. To cause (something or someone) to become ritually unclean.
5. (obsolete) To deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually; to deflower, to rape.
6. (obsolete) To dishonour (someone).
7. (obsolete) To become dirty or unclean.
8. (obsolete) To cause uncleanliness; specifically, to pass feces; to defecate.

pollute

desecrate

narrow pass

make unclean

choke point

make dirty

narrowing of path

narrowing between two heights

discolorise

discolorize

discolourise

diss

low ground

narrow path

smutch

sunken road

trespass on

mountain path

barranco

desecrateio

muddy up

make foul/dirty

dishallow

make filthy

narrow defile

low-country

hollow-way

break the law

commit a crime

Frequency

Hyphenated as

de‧file

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɪˈfaɪl/

From Late Middle English defilen (“to make dirty, befoul; to contaminate (the body or an organ) with dirt or disease; to pollute morally or spiritually; to desecrate, profane; to violate (the sanctity of marriage, an agreement or oath, etc.); to rape; to slander; to abuse; to destroy; to injure; to treat unfairly, oppress”) [and other forms], a variant of defoulen (“to make dirty, defile, pollute; to contaminate (the body or an organ) with dirt or disease; to pollute morally or spiritually; to desecrate, profane; to violate (the sanctity of marriage, an agreement or oath, etc.); to have sexual intercourse with; to rape; etc.”) (compare also defoilen). Defoulen is derived from Old French defouler (“to trample; to oppress; to outrage; to pollute; to violate”), from de- (prefix indicating actions are done more strongly or vigorously) + fouler (“to trample, tread on; to mistreat, oppress”), foler (“to destroy; to mistreat”) (from Vulgar Latin fullare (“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- (intensifying prefix) + file (“(archaic) to corrupt; to defile”). The Middle English word defilen was probably formed from defoulen on the analogy of befilen (“to make dirty, befoul; to corrupt; to violate one's chastity; to desecrate; to slander”) and befoulen (“to make dirty, befoul; to violate one's chastity; to vilify”), respectively from filen (“to make foul, impure, or unclean, pollute; to pollute morally or spiritually; to desecrate, profane; to have sexual intercourse with; to rape; etc.”) and foulen (“to make dirty, pollute; to become dirty; to defecate; to deface or deform; to pollute morally or spiritually; to damage, injure; to destroy; to treat unfairly, oppress; to tread on, trample”). Filen and foulen are respectively from Old English fȳlan (“to befoul, defile, pollute”) and fūlian (“to foul”), both from Proto-West Germanic *fūlijan (“to make dirty, befoul”), from Proto-Germanic *fūlijaną (“to make dirty, befoul”), from *fūlaz (“dirty, foul; rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“foul; rotten”). cognates * Dutch bevuilen (“to defile, soil”)