Verb: contaminate kun'ta-mi,neyt
- Make impure in a bad way; make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted substance
"Don't drink the water — it's contaminated";
- pollute, foul
- Degrade through harmful influence
"Social media disinformation can contaminate public discourse";
- corrupt
Derived forms: contaminated, contaminates, contaminating
Type of: alter, begrime, bemire [archaic], change, colly [archaic], dirty, grime, modify, soil
Antonym: decontaminate
Encyclopedia: Contaminate