defile
To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
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.
To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.
Chr[istian]. Why, I tro you did not consent to her desires? / Faith[full]. No, not to defile my self; for I remembred an old writing that I had seen, which saith, Her steps take hold of Hell. [Proverbs 5:5] So I shut mine eyes, because I would not be bewitched with her looks: [Job 31:1] then she railed on me, and I went my way.
To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.
Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.
(religion) To cause (something or someone) to become ritually unclean.
That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the LORD.
(obsolete) To deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually; to deflower, to rape.
And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
The second offence, more immediately affecting the personal security of individuals, relates to the female part of his majesty's subjects; being that of their forcible abduction and marriage; which is vulgarly called stealing an heiress. For by statute 3 Hen. VII. c. 2. it is enacted, that if any person shall for lucre take any woman, maid, widow, or wife, having subtance either in goods or lands, or being heir apparent to her ancestors, contrary to her will; and afterwards she be married to such misdoer, or by his consent to others, or defiled; such person, and all his accessories, shall be deemed principal felons: […]
(obsolete) To dishonor (someone).
Come recreant, come thou childe, / Ile whippe thee with a rodde. He is defil'd, / That drawes a sword on thee.
(obsolete) To become dirty or unclean.
(obsolete) To cause uncleanliness; specifically, to pass feces; to defecate.
There is a thing Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is knowne to many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch (as ancient writers do report) doth defile, ſo doth the companie thou keepest: […]
(military, also figuratively, archaic) 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.
They [pigs] defiled down a gully to the water and bunched and jerked their noses at it and came back.
(military, also figuratively, obsolete) To march across (a place) in files or lines.
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.
We had one dangerous Place to pass, which our Guide told us, if there were any more Wolves in the Country, we should find them there; and this was in a small Plain, surrounded with Woods on every Side, and a long narrow Defile or Lane, which we were to pass to get through the Wood, and then we should come to the Village where we were to lodge.
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; […]
[T]hese granite hills, thousands of feet high, were impracticable for heavy troops: the passes through them being formidable defiles, very costly to assault or cover.
(military) An act of marching in files or lines.
(military) A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file.
(military, rare) Defilade; To fortify (something) as a protection from enfilading fire.
(military, rare) An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.
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