Crossword clues for defile
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Defile \De*file"\, v. t. (Mil.) Same as Defilade.
Defile \De*file"\ (d[-e]*f[imac]l" or d[=e]"f[imac]l; 277), n.
Any narrow passage or gorge in which troops can march only in a file, or with a narrow front; a long, narrow pass between hills, rocks, etc.
(Mil.) The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior. See Defilade.
Defile \De*file"\ (d[-e]*f[imac]l"), v. t. [OE. defoulen, -foilen, to tread down, OF. defouler; de- + fouler to trample (see Full, v. t.), and OE. defoulen to foul (influenced in form by the older verb defoilen). See File to defile, Foul, Defoul.]
-
To make foul or impure; to make filthy; to dirty; to befoul; to pollute.
They that touch pitch will be defiled.
--Shak. -
To soil or sully; to tarnish, as reputation; to taint.
He is . . . among the greatest prelates of this age, however his character may be defiled by . . . dirty hands.
--Swift. -
To injure in purity of character; to corrupt.
Defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt.
--Ezek. xx. 7. -
To corrupt the chastity of; to debauch; to violate; to rape.
The husband murder'd and the wife defiled.
--Prior. -
To make ceremonially unclean; to pollute.
That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile therewith.
--Lev. xxii. 8.
Defile \De*file"\ (d[-e]*f[imac]l"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Defiled (d[-e]*f[imac]ld"); p. pr. & vb. n. Defiling.] [F. d['e]filer; pref. d['e]-, for des- (L. dis-) + file a row or line. See File a row.] To march off in a line, file by file; to file off.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1400, "to desecrate, profane;" mid-15c., "to make foul or dirty," alteration of earlier defoulen, from Old French defouler "trample down, violate," also "ill-treat, dishonor," from de- "down" (see de-) + foler "to tread," from Latin fullo "person who cleans and thickens cloth by stamping on it" (see foil (v.)).\n
\nThe alteration (or re-formation) in English is from influence of Middle English filen (v.) "to render foul; make unclean or impure," literal and figurative, from Old English fylen (trans.), related to Old English fulian (intrans.) "to become foul, rot," from the source of foul (adj.). Compare befoul, which also had a parallel form befilen. Related: Defiled; defiling.
"narrow passage," 1640s, especially in a military sense, "a narrow passage down which troops can march only in single file," from French défilé, noun use of past participle of défiler "march by files" (17c.), from de- "off" (see de-) + file "row," from Latin filum "thread" (see file (v.1)). The verb in this sense is 1705, from French défiler.
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 vb. (context transitive English) to make impure; to make dirty. Etymology 2
n. 1 A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains. 2 A single file, such as of soldiers. 3 The act of defilade a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior. vb. (context archaic intransitive English) To march in a single file.
WordNet
n. a narrow pass (especially one between mountains) [syn: gorge]
v. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon; "sully someone's reputation" [syn: sully, corrupt, taint, cloud]
make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically; "The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air"; "Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man" [syn: tarnish, stain, maculate, sully]
spot, stain, or pollute; "The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it" [syn: foul, befoul, maculate]
Wikipedia
In geography, a defile is a narrow pass or gorge between mountains or hills. It has its origins as a military description of a pass through which troops can march only in a narrow column or with a narrow front. On emerging from a defile (or something similar) into open country, soldiers are said to " debouch".
In a traditional military formation, soldiers march in ranks (the depth of the formation is the number of ranks) and files (the width of the formation is the number of files), so, if a column of soldiers approaches a narrow pass, the formation must narrow, and so the files on the outside must be ordered to the rear (or to some other position) so that the column has fewer files and more ranks. The French verb for this order is défiler, from which the English verb comes, as does the physical description for a valley that forces this manoeuvre.
Defiles of military significance can also be formed by other physical features that flank a pass or path and cause it to narrow, for example impassable woods and rivers. At the Battle of Agincourt a defile formed by the woods of Agincourt and Tramecourt caused a choke point for the French army and aided the English in their victory over the French.
Some defiles have a permanent strategic importance and become known by that term in military literature. For example, the military historian William Siborne names such a geographic feature in France near the frontier with Germany in his book Waterloo Campaign 1815:
Usage examples of "defile".
Harry lay at the end of a narrow defile, thirty feet wide at the most at its base, overlooked on both sides by towering cliffs and by Afridi, each commanding a wide field of fire through which a rescuing force would need to pass.
Advancing with a steady and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, the defiles of the Apennine, received into his party the troops and ambassadors sent to retard his progress, and made a short halt at Interamnia, about seventy miles from Rome.
IX He felt the wild beast in him betweenwhiles So masterfully rude, that he would grieve To see the helpless delicate thing receive His guardianship through certain dark defiles.
The Bogue varied in width from three miles at its broadest to less than a mile at some places, and steep hills on either side fell to the water in a natural defile.
He does not need to try perilous experiments with his own soul in order to make sure that lust defiles, that avarice hardens, that frivolity empties, that selfishness cankers the heart.
He thought of Bruno, who that morning had defiled the Greek temple with his opinion of eurythmics, and Frank, who was on his fifth psychoanalyst and had seizures in unsuitable places when his will was crossed.
Self-love is the foulest of all foul feeders, and will defile that it may devour.
You did not go to the Harpies and defile their gifts to you by exposing them to these unfitting sentiments pressed upon your unwilling minds.
Katla emerged from the twisting defile out into the heathland at the foot of the cliff, it was already too late.
Both roads traversed the outer flanks of the Alban Hills, but the Via Latina did so through a defile which chopped a gap in the eastern escarpment of the ridge and allowed the road to travel onward to Rome in the flatter space between this high ground and the Alban Mount itself.
Thinking that the only route open to the Samnites if they planned to attack Rome was the Via Appia, Sulla remained in his defile on the Via Latina and kept watch, sure he could not be taken by surprise.
An exceptionally saintly lacquered lohan was admiring the diamond-encrusted imperial sceptre that the Ancestress had placed at his feet, and apparently he feared that the other funeral gifts might be defiled by demons.
Thrace, and wind through the defiles, and over the mountains of Macedonia, coast the clear waves of the Peneus, cross the Larissean plain, pass the straits of Thermopylae, and ascending in succession Oeta and Parnassus, descend to the fertile plain of Athens.
Vaguely he seemed to understand that, in that great new land of the West, in the open-air, healthy life of the ranches, where the conditions of earning a livelihood were of the easiest, refinement among the younger women was easily to be found--not the refinement of education, nor culture, but the natural, intuitive refinement of the woman, not as yet defiled and crushed out by the sordid, strenuous life-struggle of overpopulated districts.
It was through this defile that the massive Indian force that had been assembling in secret in the city of Srinagar planned to roll.