Vocabulary Word
Word: defile
Definition: pollute; make filthy or dirty; corrupt morally; profane; desecrate; N: narrow passage or gorge through mountains
Definition: pollute; make filthy or dirty; corrupt morally; profane; desecrate; N: narrow passage or gorge through mountains
Sentences Containing 'defile'
I only desired he would lend me two clean shirts, which, having been washed since he wore them, I believed would not so much defile me.
As marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains, accelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain; even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle, and swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre.
And when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing, and bethought him that through that gate lay the route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that through that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end; and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their curses;--when all these conceits had passed through his brain, Ahab's brow was left gaunt and ribbed, like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it, without being able to drag the firm thing from its place.
More Vocab Words
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::: benign - kindly; favorable; not malignant (disease); Ex. benign tumor
::: rend - split; tear apart; N. rent; CF. heartrending: causing deep sorrow
::: genteel - well-bred; elegant; striving to convey an appearance of refinement; Ex. genteel poverty
::: commandeer - take (private property) for military use without needing permission or giving payment; draft for military purposes
::: confidant - (confidante) trusted friend (to whom one tells one's secret)
::: invoke - call and bring into use (a right or law); call on/upon (a higher power or god) for help; ask for; beg for; conjure (a spirit); Ex. invoke the veto power; Ex. invoke one's advisor/God
::: vortex - whirlwind; whirlpool; center of turbulence; predicament into which one is inexorably plunged
::: thespian - pertaining to drama; N: actor or actress
