Lexic.us

Definition of Defile

1. Noun. A narrow pass (especially one between mountains).

2. Verb. Place under suspicion or cast doubt upon. "Sully someone's reputation"

3. Verb. Make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically. "Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man"

4. Verb. Spot, stain, or pollute. "The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it"

Definition of Defile

1. v. i. To march off in a line, file by file; to file off.

2. v. t. Same as Defilade.

3. n. Any narrow passage or gorge in which troops can march only in a file, or with a narrow front; a long, narrow pass between hills, rocks, etc.

4. v. t. To make foul or impure; to make filthy; to dirty; to befoul; to pollute.

Definition of Defile

1. Verb. (transitive) to make impure; to make dirty. ¹

2. Noun. A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains. ¹

3. Noun. A single file, such as of soldiers. ¹

4. Verb. (context: obsolete intransitive) To march in a single file. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Defile

1. to make dirty [v -FILED, -FILING, -FILES] - See also: dirty

Lexicographical Neighbors of Defile

deficit spending deficits defied defier defiers defies defiguration defigure defigured defigures

defiguring defilade defiladed defilades defilading defile (current term) defiled defilement defilements defiler

defilers defiles defileth defiliation defiliations defiling defiltration definability definable definably

Literary usage of Defile

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Infantry Tactics: For the Instruction, Exercise, and Manœuvres of the by Silas Casey (1862)
"'When the defile happens to be behind the right or left battalion of the line, ... The movement will commence by the wing farthest from the defile, ..."

2. The Elements of War by Isaac Maltby (1811)
"Each battalion files up to the defile, and each platoon, or section, (as the case may be,) will front and forward on the same ground as the preceding one, ..."

3. Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics: For the Exercise and Manoeuvres of Troops by William Joseph Hardee (1861)
"When a battalion, retiring in line, shall encounter a defile which it must pass, the colonel will halt the battalion, and face it to tbe front. 710. ..."

4. The Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of the Old Testament by George V. Wigram (1866)
"iuM lewdly defiled his daughter in law; 23:36. they have defiled my sanctuary 33:2ti.r/e defile every one his neighbour's wife: 36:18. idols ..."

5. History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Accession of by Archibald Alison (1857)
"To add to the horrors of this defile, the frost had covered the road and edges of the torrent with a coating of ice, on which the beasts of burden could ..."

6. Works by Washington Irving (1895)
"At the head of the valley, they were to pass through a defile which would bring them out beyond the northern end of these mountains, ..."

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