Sample sentences for DEFILE - verbalworkout.com

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Definition

to spoil the beauty or purity of something

in various senses, including:

pollute a pristine lake
harm a reputation or good name
damage or disrespect something sacred
take a person's virginity in a disrespectful way

More rarely (but not uncommon in classic literature), defile can refer to a narrow valley or a march or passage through one.

They defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it.

defiled = polluted

She believes any non-Muslim in Saudi Arabia defiles the holy land.

defiles = spoils the purity of

She spread false rumors to defile my good name.

defile = harm a reputation

The Ministry of Culture disallows entertainment that defiles the national culture.

defiles = spoils the beauty of

They were charged with abduction with the intent to defile.

defile = sexually assault

They were conquered and their temples defiled.

defiled = treated (something sacred) with terrible disrespect

When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
Shakespeare -- King Lear
Like maggots they had swarmed defilingly over the mystery of Linda's death.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

defilingly = in a manner that dirtied the beauty or purity of something

Since the Humans came into the land, felling forests and defiling streams, the Dryads and Naiads have sunk into a deep sleep.
C.S. Lewis -- Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

defiling = spoiling the beauty or purity of something

"I ate civilization." ... "It poisoned me; I was defiled."
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

defiled = made more dirty and impure

...that beautiful, beautiful Other Place, whose memory, as of a heaven, a paradise of goodness and loveliness, he still kept whole and intact, undefiled by contact with the reality of this real London, these actual civilized men and women.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

undefiled = unspoiled

(editor's note: The prefix "un-" in undefiled means not and reverses the meaning of defiled. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)

  "Orgy-porgy!" said Bernard, interrupting the reading with a loud, unpleasant laugh.
  ...
  He was revenging himself on his two friends for liking one another more than they liked him.
  ...
  It was simple and, since both Helmholtz and the Savage were dreadfully pained by the shattering and defilement of a favourite poetic crystal, extremely effective.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

defilement = to dirty the beauty or purity of something

She weeps when she looks down the long dreary vista of time and beholds in horror the spectacle of Limerick boys defiling themselves, polluting themselves, interfering with themselves, abusing themselves, soiling their young bodies, which are the temples of the Holy Ghost.
Frank McCourt -- Angela's Ashes

defiling = to dirty the beauty or purity of something

To defile it, to twist its power.
Nora Roberts -- Blood Brothers
I only desired he would lend me two clean shirts, which, having been washed since he wore them, I believed would not so much defile me.
Jonathan Swift -- Gulliver's Travels
It's amazing how quickly he can defile a space.
Suzanne Collins -- Mockingjay
It is my mind and soul that he has tortured and defiled.
Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Hound of the Baskervilles
Nor could the litter be set down, lest it defiled the temple by becoming a throne.
E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
The sight of the well-known objects that defiled before her eyes gradually diverted Emma from her present trouble.
Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary
She passed through hours of unintelligible shame and impotent rage and futile striving to reason away her defilement.
Zane Grey -- The Light of Western Stars

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