defile

Meaning

Verb

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

Noun

1. (also, figuratively) 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.
2. (also, figuratively) An act of marching in files or lines.
3. (also, figuratively) A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file.

Noun

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

Opposite of

clean, purify, dirty, hallow, sanctify, deconsecrate, desacralize, desecrate, profane, uncanonize, unbless, unhallow, unsaint

Synonyms

pollute

profane

desecrate

foul

sully

soil

gorge

corrupt

dirty

taint

contaminate

dishonor

spoil

violate

ravine

stain

pass

maculate

mountain pass

blaspheme

befoul

narrow pass

besmirch

bottleneck

debase

make unclean

bedaub

ruin

rape

smirch

notch

parade

dell

make dirty

blemish

transgress

tarnish

gap

cloud

☁️

seduce

dishonour

choke point

disgrace

disfigure

isthmus

muddy

defame

deconsecrate

blur

darken

Translations

Engpass

défilé

profaneren

ontheiligen

ontwijden

schenden

desfiladero

profanar

défiler

defilieren

violer

profaner

Hohlweg

ensuciar

souiller

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɪˈfaɪl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: defilen

Cognate with Old English: fȳlan

Cognate with Dutch: bevuilen

Cognate with Middle French: desfilher

In summary

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”)