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.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of vitiate English)
Usage examples of "vitiating".
Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control.
Heat flushed back and forth across his skin-a vitiating fever which echoed the haze of the scorched earth.
Was, perhaps, guilty locomotion instrumental in vitiating our powers of impersonation?