Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use defile in a sentence

12 example sentences · verb, noun

Defile means to make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil. Example: “To urinate on someone’s grave is an example of a way to defile it.”

Examples of defile by meaning

verbTo make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.

  • I am defiled.”1911 October, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Journey”, in The Forerunner: A Monthly Magazine, volume II, number 10, New York, N.Y....

verbTo act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.

  • To urinate on someone’s grave is an example of a way to defile it.
  • The vote in the Bundestag (parliament) on Thursday makes defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag.2020 May 15, “Burning EU and other flags can now bring German jail term”, in BBC, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2025

verbTo deprive (someone) of their sexual chastity or purity, often not consensually; to deflower, to rape.

  • The serial rapist kidnapped and defiled a six-year-old girl.

nounA narrow passage or way (originally (military), one which soldiers could only march through in a single file or line)...

  • On the final stages of the run from Inverness Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45066 winds its train through narrow rock defiles alongside Loch Carron at the approach to Kyle of Lochalsh.1962 January, “Motive Power Transition on the Kyle Line”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allen Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC...

More sentences with defile

  • "Shame on those who defile the community by resorting to brutal combat, combat which results in bruises and a bloodied nose.2015, Yoni Elkins, Chelm Stories My Saba Sent Me, →ISBN, page 25. From the entry shonda
  • Grab an oont, lads, one each, lead 'em on!' Seizing headropes they began hauling their animals towards the defile mouth.2004, James Macdonald, “Tribals”, in Visions of Snows: A Tale of Highlanders and War, Hertford, Hertfordshire: Authors OnLine, →ISBN, page…. From the entry oont
  • The menstruater is defiled and defiling because, as she bleeds, she strays beyond the socialized towards the realm of death.1996, John Kerrigan, Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon, Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 55. From the entry menstruater
  • Your father will never defile children again!”1996, Cassie Edwards, chapter 4, in Wild Whispers, New York, N.Y.: Topaz, →ISBN, page 61. From the entry dark-hearted
  • The Creator's enoughness had been defiled by his creatures, and for the first time, something now existed on this planet that did not glorify him.2014, Matt Heard, Life With A Capital L, pages 140–141. From the entry enoughness
  • Yeah, you blew it with America 's sweetheart, but guys like us really only want to deflower, defile, sodomize, and facialize a good-girl sweetheart anyway.2011, Steve Coney, Gardening With Napalm, →ISBN, page 102. From the entry facialize
  • But in what archaeologists describe as one of the most shameful instances of 'brandalism' seen in Britain, Channel 4 executives stand accused of defiling the oldest hill-chalk carving in Britain.2003 May 4, Mark Townsend, “Big Brother's logo 'defiles' White Horse”, in The Observer. From the entry brandalism

Meaning of defile

  1. verb To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.
  2. verb To make (someone or something) morally impure or unclean; to corrupt, to tarnish.
  3. verb To act inappropriately towards or vandalize (something sacred or special); to desecrate, to profane.

Full definition of defile

Questions about defile in a sentence

How do you use defile in a sentence?
Defile is used as a verb and noun. For example: “To urinate on someone’s grave is an example of a way to defile it.”
What is a short sentence with defile?
“I am defiled.””
What does defile mean?
Defile means to make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defile (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use defile in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/defile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.