defile
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I got in there the idea of a strain with the Lakers, but I wanted to make sure to not defile that relationship based upon certain things that I wasn’t going to dig into.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
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
Protesters blocked construction crews in 2015 and 2019, saying building a new telescope there would further defile a site that they say has already been harmed by a dozen other observatories.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2022
It’s amazing how quickly he can defile a space.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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"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
Even as he builds his delegate count, he gains strength from the very groups he defiles.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 10, 2016
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
The boys chose their way through defiles and over heaps of sharp stone.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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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
The long-awaited move from the Environmental Protection Agency is meant to spark the cleanup of scores of sites defiled by industrial compounds and make the public more aware of their presence.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022
Therefore he was defiled and a defiler of others.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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Coming to grips with the experience of that landscape was a major turning point in my understanding about the degree to which we as a species are capable of defiling our planet.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2023
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
"I don't want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was OK. I don't want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future," he told CBS.
From Reuters ● Jan. 31, 2022
"Without being able to arrest people, when we just fine them, they are probably making more money of the production of the things that are defiling the environment," the actor said in his welcome speech.
From Fox News ● Jun. 1, 2021
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
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Vocabulary lists containing defile
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Grade 9, List 3
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The House of the Scorpion
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