soiling

Verb

soil (third-person singular simple present soils, present participle soiling, simple past and past participle soiled)

1. (transitive) To make dirty.
   • […]Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know, / Which leaves us naked thus, of Honour void, / Of innocence, of Faith, of Puritie, / Our wonted Ornaments now ſoild and ſtaind, / And in our Faces evident the ſignes / Of foul concupiſcence ; whence eveil ſtore ; / Even ſhame, the laſt of evils ; of...1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...

   Synonyms:

   besmirch, dirty, smirch, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile

2. (intransitive) To become dirty or soiled.
   • Light colours soil sooner than dark ones.

   Synonyms:

   dirten, dirty, muddy, sully

3. (figuratively, transitive) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
   • […]They clip vs drunkards, and with Swiniſh phraſe / Soyle our addition, and indeede it takes / From our atchieuements, though perform’d at height / The pith and marrow of our attribute[…]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
4. (reflexive) To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed.
   • The child was so scared she soiled herself.
5. To make invalid, to ruin.

   Synonyms:

   invalidate, ball up, blight, bumble, botch, bugger up, bungle, contaminate, corrupt, crab

6. To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
   • For to be kind to the former is traffic ; and in these times men present, just as they soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop : and for the latter, the politician well approves of the Indian’s religion, in worshiping the devil, that he may do him no hurt ; how...1676 April 30, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume I, New York: Hurd and Houghton, published 1866, page 176

See all 18 meanings of soil