different between bemire vs defile

English

Etymology

From Middle English *bemyren (possibly attested in Middle English bemyred), equivalent to be- (“all over”) +? mire.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??ma??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??ma???/

Verb

bemire (third-person singular simple present bemires, present participle bemiring, simple past and past participle bemired)

1. (archaic) To soil with mud or a similar substance.
   • 1603, John Davies, The Discovery of the Little World, with the Government Thereof, Oxford, p. 118,^[1]

     The Minde, constrain’d the Bodies want to feele,

     Makes Salves of Earth the Bodies hurt to heale,

     Which doe the Mind bemire with thoughts vnfitt;

   • 1684, Nahum Tate (translator), “The Second Eclogue” in John Dryden (ed.), Miscellany Poems, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 13,^[2]

     Ah me! while I fond wretch indulge my Dreams,

     Winds blast my Flow’rs, and Boars bemire my Streams.

   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, London: Benjamin Motte, Part II, Chapter 5, pp. 99-100,^[3]

     There was a Cow-Dung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found my self just in the Middle up to my Knees. I waded through with some Difficulty, and one of the Footmen wiped me as clean as he could with his Handkerchief; for I was filthily bemired […]

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 29,^[4]

     I wished to rise; but what could I put on? Only my damp and bemired apparel; in which I had slept on the ground and fallen in the marsh.

2. (archaic) To immerse or trap in mire.
   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Nath. Ponder, pp. 13-14,^[5],[6]

     True, there are by the direction of the Law-giver, certain good and subs[tantial] Steps, placed even through the very midst of this Slough; but at such a time as this place doth much spue out [its filth] as it doth against change of weather, these steps are hardly seen; or if they be, Men through the diziness of their heads, step besides; and then they are bemired to purpose, notwithstanding the steps be there […]

   • 1802, Rembrandt Peale, Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth, a Non-Descript Carnivorous Animal of Immense Size Found in America, London, p. 38,^[7]

     In two of the morasses there was not depth sufficient to have bemired an animal of such magnitude and strength […]

   • 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow, Book I, Chapter 2,^[8]

     I saw your horse bemired, and put him from his agony; which, by my sooth! an ye had been a more merciful rider, ye had done yourself.

   • 1912, Alice C. Thompson, The Good Old Days: A Comedy in One Act, Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, p. 9,^[9]

     Likely the stage-coach is bemired. The roads at this season of the year are none too good.

3. (figuratively) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.

Anagrams

• berime, bireme

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fa?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English defilen (“to make dirty”), alteration (due to Middle English defoulen, defoilen (“to trample, abuse”)) of Middle English befilen (“to befoul, to defile, to make foul”), from Old English bef?lan (“to befoul, defile”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- + *f?lijan? (“to defile, make filthy”). Equivalent to de- +? file. Cognate with Dutch bevuilen (“to defile, soil”). More at de-, file, be-, and foul.

Verb

defile (third-person singular simple present defiles, present participle defiling, simple past and past participle defiled)

1. (transitive) To make unclean, dirty, or impure; soil; befoul.
2. (transitive) To vandalize or add inappropriate contents to something considered sacred or special; desecrate

3. (transitive) To deprive or ruin someone's (sexual) purity or chastity, often not consensually; stain; tarnish; mar; rape

Synonyms

• (make unclean): contaminate, pollute, spoil, sully; see also Thesaurus:dirty
• (vandalize something considered sacred): desecrate, profane; see also Thesaurus:desecrate
• (violate chastity of): ravish, violate, vitiate

Antonyms

• (make unclean): clean, purify; see also Thesaurus:make clean
• (vandalize something considered sacred): sanctify; see also Thesaurus:consecrate

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Earlier defilee, from French défilé, from défiler (“to march past”), from file (“file”).

Noun

defile (plural defiles)

1. A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains.
   • 1958, Plutarch, Ian Scott-Kilvert (translator), "Life of Nicias" in Lives: The Fall of the Roman Republic

     The next morning the enemy were on the march before him, seized the defiles, blocked the fords of the rivers, destroyed the bridges, and sent out cavalry to patrol the open ground, so as to oppose the Athenians at every step as they retreated.

2. A single file, such as of soldiers.
3. The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.

Translations

See also

• glen

Verb

defile (third-person singular simple present defiles, present participle defiling, simple past and past participle defiled)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To march in a single file; to file.
   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, p.138:

     They defiled down a gully to the water and bunched and jerked their noses at it and came back.

Translations

Anagrams

• e-filed

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From French défilé.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /def?le?/
• Hyphenation: de?fi?le

Noun

defìl? m (Cyrillic spelling ???????)

1. march-past

Declension

References

• “defile” in Hrvatski jezi?ni portal