The difference between Contaminate and Defile
When used as verbs, contaminate means to make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter, whereas defile means to make unclean, dirty, or impure.
Defile is also noun with the meaning: a narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains.
check bellow for the other definitions of Contaminate and Defile
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Contaminate as a verb (transitive):
To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter.
Examples:
"This water is contaminated. It isn't safe to drink."
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Contaminate as a verb (transitive):
To soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association.
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Contaminate as a verb (transitive):
To make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
Examples:
"Do not contaminate the peanut butter with the jelly."
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Contaminate as a verb:
To infect, often with bad objects
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Defile as a verb (transitive):
To make unclean, dirty, or impure; soil; befoul.
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Defile as a verb (transitive):
To vandalize or add inappropriate contents to something considered sacred or special; desecrate
Examples:
"To urinate on someone's grave is an example of a way to defile it."
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Defile as a verb (transitive):
To deprive or ruin someone's (sexual) purity or chastity, often not consensually; stain; tarnish; mar; rape
Examples:
"The serial rapist kidnapped and defiled a six-year-old girl."
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Defile as a noun:
A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains
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Defile as a noun:
A single file, such as of soldiers.
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Defile as a noun:
The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.
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Defile as a verb (archaic, intransitive):
To march in a single file.