POLLUTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pollute

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/pəlˈut/ Listen

verb

Pollute v. t. (past & past part. polluted; pres. part. polluting)

To make foul, impure, or unclean; to defile; to taint; to soil; to desecrate; used of physical or moral defilement. "The land was polluted with blood." "Wickedness... hath polluted the whole earth."

To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonor.

(Jewish Law) To render ceremonially unclean; to disqualify or unfit for sacred use or service, or for social intercourse. "Neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die." "They have polluted themselves with blood."

Synonyms: To defile; soil; contaminate; corrupt; taint; vitiate; debauch; dishonor; ravish.

adjective

Pollute adj. Polluted. (R.)

See images of 'Pollute'

Etymology of 'Pollute'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pollute" Quotes from Famous Books

... She woos the gentle air To hide her guilty front with innocent snow; And on her naked shame, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw; Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near ...

— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... from a stream flowing across his own land, has the right to divert such a stream from its natural channel—providing it is not a navigable or floatable stream—but in so doing, he must return it to its own channel for lower riparian owners. The generation of water-power does not pollute the water, nor does it diminish the water in quantity, therefore the farmer is infringing on no other owner's rights in using the ...

— Electricity for the farm - Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water - wheel or farm engine • Frederick Irving Anderson

... of his father Henry; that he was a renegade, whose treachery had occasioned the loss of Acre; and he concluded by a solemn oath, that he would cause him to be drawn to pieces by wild horses, if he should ever venture to pollute the Christian camp by his presence. Philip attempted to intercede in favour of the Marquis, and throwing down his glove, offered to become a pledge for his fidelity to the Christians; but his offer was rejected, and he was obliged to give way to ...

— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott

... yearly occurrence in the colony, and are justly held in abhorrence by the pious and thinking portion of the population of either denomination. The government has for many years vainly endeavoured to put them down, but they still pollute with their moral leprosy the free institutions of the country, and effectually prevent any friendly feeling which might grow up between the members of these rival and ...

— Life in the Clearings versus the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... first both these sons were in a false and unsafe position. Their characters were not the same,—were not similar: they differed in thought and word; but the difference, in as far as their answers were concerned, indicated only varieties of sin. Legion is the name of the spirits that possess and pollute the fallen; but all the legion do not dwell in every man. Different temptations tinge different persons with different hues of guilt. At the time when the father uttered his command, the character of the first son ...

— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

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