Pollute
[pə'luːt] or [pə'lut]
Definition
(v. t.) To make foul, impure, or unclean; to defile; to taint; to soil; to desecrate; -- used of physical or moral defilement.
(v. t.) To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonor.
(v. t.) To render ceremonially unclean; to disqualify or unfit for sacred use or service, or for social intercourse.
(a.) Polluted.
Edited by Barton
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Defile, soil, taint, make foul.[2]. Corrupt, infect, contaminate, vitiate, deprave, debase, poison.
Checked by Carlton
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Befoul, taint, poison, corrupt, tarnish, stain, contaminate, soil, vitiate,deprave
ANT:Purify, clarify, disinfect, filter
Checked by Joseph
Definition
v.t. to soil: to defile: to make foul: to taint: to corrupt: to profane: to violate.—adj. defiled.—adj. Pollut′ed.—adv. Pollut′edly.—ns. Pollut′edness; Pollut′er; Pollū′tion act of polluting: state of being polluted: defilement.
Typed by Keller
Examples
- Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall burn the eyes from his head that he may not pollute my person with his vile gaze. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted? Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Or else it looked as if it had gradually decomposed into that nightmare condition, out of the overflowings of the polluted stream. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Polluted by crimes, and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death? Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- It is offensive to every sense; even the gross candle burns pale and sickly in the polluted air. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most polluted, were a rotten red. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- The cloth, the greasy wool, the polluting dyeing-vats? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The place pollutes it. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- We rise; one wand'ring thought pollutes the day. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
Editor: Thea