Crossword clues for vitiate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vitiate \Vi"ti*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vitiated; p. pr. & vb. n. Vitiating.] [L. vitiatus, p. p. vitiare to vitiate, fr. vitium a fault, vice. See Vice a fault.] [Written also viciate.]
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To make vicious, faulty, or imperfect; to render defective; to injure the substance or qualities of; to impair; to contaminate; to spoil; as, exaggeration vitiates a style of writing; sewer gas vitiates the air.
A will vitiated and growth out of love with the truth disposes the understanding to error and delusion.
--South.Without care it may be used to vitiate our minds.
--Burke.This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers.
--Garth. To cause to fail of effect, either wholly or in part; to make void; to destroy, as the validity or binding force of an instrument or transaction; to annul; as, any undue influence exerted on a jury vitiates their verdict; fraud vitiates a contract.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, from Latin vitiatus, past participle of vitiare "to make faulty, injure, spoil, corrupt," from vitium "fault, defect, blemish, crime, vice" (see vice (n.1)). Related: Vitiated; vitiating.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) to spoil, make faulty; to reduce the value, quality, or effectiveness of something 2 (context transitive English) to debase or morally corrupt 3 (context transitive archaic English) to violate, to rape 4 (context transitive English) to make something ineffective, to invalidate
WordNet
v. corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, deprave, misdirect]
make imperfect; "nothing marred her beauty" [syn: mar, impair, spoil, deflower]
take away the legal force of or render ineffective; "invalidateas a contract" [syn: invalidate, void] [ant: validate]
Usage examples of "vitiate".
That quest was abetted by a sympathetic schoolteacher, Rebecca, who saw in the lad a glimmering hope that occasionally there might be resurrection from a bitter life sentence in the emotionally barren and aesthetically vitiated Kentucky hamlet, and who ultimately seduced him.
He pointed out that the growth of trade unions and democracy had vitiated the raw power of capitalists and had ameliorated capitalism.
When, however, such conceptions hindered the progress of explanation, it was not so much by vitiating the deductive method as by putting men off from exact inquiries.
Hence it is, aside from any investigation of proofs of evolutionism, clear to the Christian student that there must be some fault either in reason or in observation that vitiates the whole theory.
He told Karp that the fight we put up for the Rosenbergs was vitiated by the fitct that we shut our eyes to the grosser injustices of the other side.
In the French hospitals it is customary to burn Juniper berries with Rosemary for correcting vitiated air, and to prevent infection.
It may be induced by exposure to cold, in consequence of which the circulation is impeded, the pores of the skin obstructed, and all of the vitiated matters having to be expelled through the liver, stomach, and intestines.
He would have to grow a thicker skin or else be prepared to put up with the jibes of colleagues who would enjoy watching the profiler lose his lunch over another vitiated victim.
But anyone at all versed in elementary science is very well aware that psychophysical interaction vitiates the law of conservation of energy and of entropy.
The depression and faintness from which many students suffer, after being confined in a poorly ventilated school room, is clearly traceable to vitiated air, while the evil is often ascribed to excessive mental exertion.
Marchioness, and at that age when the mind is particularly sensible to impressions of gaiety and delight, he had once visited this spot, and, though he had passed a long intervening period amidst the vexations and tumults of public affairs, which too frequently corrode the heart, and vitiate the taste, the shades of Languedoc and the grandeur of its distant scenery had never been remembered by him with indifference.
Contained in this statement is a half-conscious confusion of ideas which vitiates nearly all politico-literary criticism.
The possibility of such forgeries is now very slight indeed, but vitiates early collections.
Since it has occurred to you--you who wish the acquittal of this poor boy--that the testimony of Madame Dammauville may be vitiated by the simple fact that it comes from a sick woman, it is incontestable, is it not, that this same idea will occur to those who wish for his conviction?
The Court of Cassation, to which he had made the usual appeal after condemnation, decided that the proceedings at Versailles had been vitiated by the fact that the evidence of Gabrielle Fenayrou's second lover had not been taken ORALLY, within the requirements of the criminal code.