befouling

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

   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
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

   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