as in contaminated
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1
as in polluted
to make unfit for use by the addition of something harmful or undesirable
supplies of meat that had been defiled by maggots
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in violated
to treat (a sacred place or object) shamefully or with great disrespect
art conservators were careful not to do anything that might defile the holy relic
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of defiled
Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 18 Dec. 2025
After occupying forces defiled the temple, a small army led by Judah the Maccabee liberated the sanctuary.
—Jose R. Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 10 Dec. 2025
After recapturing Jerusalem’s holy temple, which had been defiled by the occupiers, the Maccabees searched for pure oil to light the menorah.
—Haadiza Ogwude, Cincinnati Enquirer, 1 Dec. 2025
Friday’s incident isn’t the first time the church has been defiled by a member of the public in recent years.
—Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025
The seafood area’s ice machine was similarly defiled.
—David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025
Verb
Their beautiful sanctuary has been defiled, and Emily is fired.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for defiled
Adjective
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Major soil removal underway Meerbott said restoring the park has become a priority as crews work to remove contaminated soil.—
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Leptospirosis can also be found in contaminated water or soil and is spread by rodents.—
Verb
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Highways, viaducts, giant interchanges, and a major Metro junction viciously mutilated São Paulo’s downtown in the 1960s and ’70s, demoting it from a popular residential area to a commercial transfer hub, overcrowded and polluted by day but forlorn by night.—
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Their natural environment is being polluted and burned down, and people still hunt them for their meat.—
Verb
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The addition of those provisions, the lawsuit argues, violated a requirement in the Missouri Constitution that laws only deal with one subject.—
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The lawsuit argues the freeze violated federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional limits on executive power and how Congress appropriates funds.—
Adjective
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Federal officials advise customers not to use the tainted cinnamon and throw it away.—
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Clostridium botulinum can be unevenly spread throughout powdered formula, so not all babies who consume a tainted product will fall ill, according to medical experts.—
Verb
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Residents are also urged to watch children closely while playing outdoors where mushrooms grow and to keep pets away, since animals can be poisoned as well.—
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In June 2024, Bich poisoned a fourth relative — a teenager — who survived after collapsing and being rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered cyanide in his stomach and alerted the family, the outlets reported.—
Verb
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Officials determined that a total of 26 underground vaults and mausoleums were broken into or desecrated from November 2025 until the day Gerlach was caught.—
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In 1993, White Supremacists in Billings desecrated a Jewish cemetery, sent bomb threats to a synagogue and threw a brick at a menorah in the window of a five-year-old Jewish boy.—
Adjective
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Kanto practitioners believe that women cannot participate because, according to Japan's Shinto religion, women's blood from menstruation and childbirth is considered impure for the purpose of religious rituals.—
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Their inclusion underlines the wider context of the film, provoking the audience to hold these pure and impure images together.—
Adjective
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The faucet at the three-compartment sink was unclean with oil residue.—
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The ways in which houses can be infested by unclean spirits are varied.—
Cite this Entry
“Defiled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defiled. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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