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# defile

«defile» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **make dirty, make unclean; narrow pass** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### kind

archaic sense

### modern equivalent

make dirty, make unclean; narrow pass

### part of speech

verb (also noun in sentence 2)

### meaning for a pupil

To make something impure or dirty; as a noun, a narrow path between hills. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/D/defile/#m1)

### how it differs from today

Today "defile" as a verb means to spoil purity, and as a noun it means a narrow valley pass. The first and third sentences use the verb as we do; the second sentence uses the noun in an old sense.

### examples

- And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. (Torah LEV.18.20, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/D/defile/#x1)
- Twenty years later his son Aristomachus consulted an oracle, which promised him victory if he went by way of the defile. (Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/D/defile/#x2)
- He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. (Torah LEV.21.4, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/D/defile/#x3)

### primary record

defile

### tests

rate: sense (≥3 uses in the Torah, ≥10× EWT there, Wiktionary: an archaic sense); corpora 22 (Torah 17, tales 5, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 2.5 (Torah alone 39.7); Wiktionary archaic (a sense)

### In the corpora

- [And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1068/)
- [The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1083/)
- [And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.531/)
- [And the land was defiled, therefore I did visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.536/)
- [for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled —](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.538/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «defile» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/D/defile/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.