defile

Pronunciation: /dɪˈfaɪl/

The English word “defile” has 15 meanings listed here.

verb

To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.
To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.
To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.
To cause (something or someone) to become ritually unclean.
To deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually; to deflower, to rape.
To dishonour (someone).
To become dirty or unclean.
To cause uncleanliness; specifically, to pass feces; to defecate.
To march in a single file or line; to file.
To march across (a place) in files or lines.
Synonym of defilade (“to fortify (something) as a protection from enfilading fire”).

noun

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.
An act of marching in files or lines.
A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file.
An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.

Etymology

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”)…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.