What's the difference between defile and desecrate?

Defile


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To march off in a line, file by file; to file off.
  • (v. t.) Same as Defilade.
  • (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.
  • (n.) The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior. See Defilade.
  • (v. t.) To make foul or impure; to make filthy; to dirty; to befoul; to pollute.
  • (v. t.) To soil or sully; to tarnish, as reputation; to taint.
  • (v. t.) To injure in purity of character; to corrupt.
  • (v. t.) To corrupt the chastity of; to debauch; to violate.
  • (v. t.) To make ceremonially unclean; to pollute.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) To most of us, Ken Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian activist and a martyr, a brave and inspiring campaigner who led his Ogoni people's struggle against the decades-long defilement of their land by Big Oil, and ended up paying for it with his life.
  • (2) He told the Weekend Nation: "Malawians must understand that the person they employed as the president of their country … has defiled the conditions of service."
  • (3) Hindu nationalists want to make India great again.” Hindu nationalism is rooted in the belief that Muslim and British invasions defiled Hindu culture and values, which are seen as synonymous with those of India, writes Syracuse professor Prema Kurien in her book A Place at the Multicultural Table: the Development of an American Hinduism .
  • (4) for bladder neck and prostatic obstructions because the risk of jatrogenic defilement, and any method of preventing, reducing or delaying the occurrence of infection in catheterized patients, should be tooking considerations.
  • (5) In outdoor factory environments many defiling substances are produced by different working processes.
  • (6) Many Sunnis regard the Alevis as infidels and believe that to share their food is to be defiled.
  • (7) When a young unmarried girl gets pregnant, the man may be accused of "defilement" - rape.
  • (8) Kancha Sherpa, the sole surviving member of Hillary's expedition, believes the melting glaciers are a punishment for defiling nature.
  • (9) Various surgical techniques were employed, such as refixation at the processus coracoideus, tenodesis in the sulcus intertubercularis, keyhole operation, in combination with an intraarticular inspection, revision, or if necessary widening of a narrow passage ("defile").
  • (10) Most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan.
  • (11) Among that majority, count the man who could have defied it and thereby defiles the term “leader of the opposition”, because that’s exactly what he’s not.
  • (12) We don’t want anything tomorrow to happen that would defile the name of Michael Brown,” he said.
  • (13) Several hemorheologic and plasma proteic features were analyzed in workers exposed to acoustic defilement.
  • (14) In all cases, the approach was done through the anterior way, with up thoracic defile exploration and mobilizing upper limb.
  • (15) Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.
  • (16) Initially (at 2 cm depth), high radioactivity is always detected, which among other things is caused by the defilement of the bullet's surface when shot through the textile covering marked by technetium.
  • (17) The exposition to acoustic defilement during work activity may be considered as aetiological factor for the development and progression of sensorineural hearing impairment, and more extensively for the occurrence of cardiovascular complications.
  • (18) Abbas, in a speech two weeks ago, warned of religious war, and with the same breath accused Jews of defiling the Jerusalem mosques.
  • (19) It’s not just someone strangling and poisoning, it’s physically defiling women.
  • (20) He has defiled the Holocaust, which is sacrosanct for the Jewish people, with absurd historical inaccuracies.

Desecrate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, in February described gay lifestyles as perverted and a desecration of human dignity.
  • (2) And Islamist extremists desecrated shrines built by Sufi Muslims and the graves of British soldiers.
  • (3) "We will do everything that we can to remove funding for the Brooklyn museum until the director comes to his senses and realises that if you are a government-subsidised enterprise, then you can't do things that desecrate the most personal and deeply held views of people in society.
  • (4) On Wednesday, Sboui appeared before an investigating judge in Kairouan who is considering the charges; they include public indecency, desecrating a cemetery and belonging to a band of malefactors seeking to damage public property.
  • (5) But what can be done to halt this desecration is less obvious.
  • (6) There were shouts of "shame" from the Tory benches when John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said that Britain should apologise because it had been willing to provide military support to "desecrate" the holiest site in the Sikh faith.
  • (7) Unconscious aggression is unleashed against the Jews, who thus become scapegoats against whom three constantly recurring accusations are levelled: the killing of Christ; the desecration of the Host; and the ritual murder of children.
  • (8) In a letter to a corporation official, Cottam wrote: "Desecration: graffiti have been scratched and painted on to the great west doors of the cathedral, the chapter house door and most notably a sacrilegious message painted on to the restored pillars of the west portico.
  • (9) But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.
  • (10) And cemeteries are desecrated so not even the dead can escape.
  • (11) He once created a metallic artwork decorated with the phrase "I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses" and displayed it on his website.
  • (12) As he was conveniently dead, that box was then moved, for fear of desecration.
  • (13) At least 400 people were killed in the army's infamous Operation Blue Star, which enraged Sikhs who accused the troops of desecrating the shrine.
  • (14) His claims of "desecration" and graffiti on the cathedral, along with details of "human defecation", drug use and general disruption caused by the camp have infuriated protesters, who have interpreted his comments as support for the corporation's eviction attempt.
  • (15) Isis was “intent upon only desecration and destruction” and was murdering innocent people and oppressing and raping women and girls across northern Iraq, Shorten said.
  • (16) These parameters call for “freedom of access to the holy sites consistent with the established status quo”, without recognizing that for 50 years Israeli governments have shredded that status quo, desecrating Muslim cemeteries like Mamilla and Bab al-Rahmeh, demolishing ancient Ummayad buildings discovered south of the Haram, and much else, in the race to dig down to the only strata that matter to nationalist Israeli archaeologists.
  • (17) Certainly these are not words of contrition and the Sun on Sunday so swiftly returning to the fecund bone-yard of gossip, poison and lies indicates that they've learned nothing from the outrage they provoked with their desecration of the dead children of ordinary people.
  • (18) Two members of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) were reportedly entrusted with the burial in an unknown location - chosen to avoid the risk of the grave becoming a shrine for supporters or, more likely, being desecrated by vengeful opponents.
  • (19) Two senior US officers were shot dead inside Kabul's heavily fortified interior ministry on Saturday and at least six others died in street protests as another day of violence convulsed Afghanistan following the desecration of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers.
  • (20) Gross desecration of Catholic or Protestant religious symbols is no longer a sin in America.