befoul

Verb

befoul (third-person singular simple present befouls, present participle befouling, simple past and past participle befouled)

1. (literally) To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.
   • These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque reasons—as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually arising from a great harbour full of stagnant water, and befouled by the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes: which, in hot weather, is dreadful in the last...1846, Charles Dickens, “Avignon to Genoa”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 34
   • At last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart.1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I

   Synonyms:

   befile, befilth, foul, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, begrime

   1. (literally, specifically) To defecate on, to soil with excrement.
      • For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest […]1666, George Alsop, A Character of the Province of Mary-Land, London: Peter Dring, Preface
      • “[…] But pray what smell is that? Sure your lapdog has befoul’d himself;—let me catch hold of the nasty cur, I’ll teach him better manners.”1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 12, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 91
2. (figuratively) To stain or mar (e.g., with infamy or disgrace).
   • For three days Pete bore himself according to his wont, thinking to silence the evil tongues of the little world about him, and keep sweet and alive the dear name which they were waiting to befoul and destroy.1894, Hall Caine, The Manxman, London: Heinemann, Part 5, p. 282
   • “[…] you combine a vulgar atheism and an iconoclastic desire to befoul the sacred ideas of the average man or woman, collectively scorned as the bourgeoisie——”1923, James Branch Cabell, The High Place, London: John Lane, Part 2, Chapter 15

   Synonyms:

   besmirch, sully, tarnish, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, belibel, besmear, bewray

3. (figuratively) To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.

   Synonyms:

   enmesh, foul, snarl, ensnare, ensnarl, entangle, implicate, imply, involve, mat