defile

A soldier who requested anonymity explained to AFP that since then the body had been guarded around the clock "so that rival groups do not defile him."

From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026

Some Parisians backed the move, but others - including heritage campaigners - said it was a bad idea and would "defile" the French capital's iconic monument.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024

“To defile the public debate with disinformation, lies, hatred and conspiracy theories is undemocratic conduct,” Luís Roberto Barroso, a Supreme Court justice and the head of Brazil’s electoral tribunal said in a recent speech.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2021

Earlier in his career, Leto’s androgynous appeal was so conspicuous it’s as if certain filmmakers needed to defile it somehow.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2021

Mr. Das headed up the defile with the children, the boys at his side, the little girl on his shoulders.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

"It is time to realize that fundamentalism defiles and corrupts every creed," he said.

From Reuters ● Sep. 14, 2022

In the name of personalization, she says, “it defiles, ignores, overrides and displaces everything about you and me that is personal.”

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 11, 2019

If Wood defiles this terrain, he does so by not describing it as vibrantly as you might hope.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2016

There is a fine line between reflecting the concerns of voters and performing a crude and offensive imitation that mocks and defiles their deepest beliefs.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2015

The boys chose their way through defiles and over heaps of sharp stone.

From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

The writer Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel laureate, denounced Malinche as a kind of malevolent Eve whose submission to Cortés forever defiled Mexico’s mixed identity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026

In his resignation letter, he said the CCC had been "defiled", accusing the ruling Zanu-PF party of being behind the move - allegations it denied.

From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024

The Seleucids captured the holy Temple of Jerusalem and defiled it by erecting an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside.

From National Geographic ● Dec. 7, 2023

During Roof's trial the prosecution made sure to remind the jury that he had defiled a famous church.

From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2023

With it he washed clean the stones that Wormtongue had defiled.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Let’s start with the users defiling the site with parodies of Musk and prominent corporations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2022

That meant a lot to all of us in this community who were dismayed to see hateful messages defiling a shared space where our kids play.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022

The country's blasphemy law prohibits disturbing a religious assembly, trespassing on burial grounds, insulting religious beliefs or intentionally destroying or defiling a place or an object of worship.

From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2022

"This is a defiling a classic," said another.

From Reuters ● Feb. 13, 2022

We are all our beautiful bodies and so must never be prostrate before barbarians, must never submit our original self, our one of one, to defiling and plunder.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates