1. Spoil, spot, stain, or pollute
   "The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it";
   - foul, befoul, maculate [literary]
    
2. Disregard the sacred character of a place or language
   "defile a cemetery";
   - desecrate, profane, violate
    
3. Make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air
   "The silver was defiled by the long exposure to the air";
   - tarnish, stain, maculate [literary], sully, soil
    
4. (of someone's image or good reputation) damage, place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
   "the scandal defiled his good reputation";
   - sully, taint, cloud, stain, tarnish, soil

1. A narrow pass (especially one between mountains)
   "The army had to march single file through the defile";
   - gorge

Derived forms: defiled, defiling, defiles

Type of: assail, assault, attack, attaint [archaic], blob, blot, deflower, disgrace, dishonor [US], dishonour [Brit, Cdn], fleck, impair, mar, mountain pass, notch, pass, pollute, set on, shame, spoil, spot, vitiate

Encyclopedia: Defile