What's the difference between defile and tarnish?

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.

Tarnish


Definition:

  • (a.) To soil, or change the appearance of, especially by an alternation induced by the air, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color.
  • (v. i.) To lose luster; to become dull; as, gilding will tarnish in a foul air.
  • (n.) The quality or state of being tarnished; stain; soil; blemish.
  • (n.) A thin film on the surface of a metal, usually due to a slight alteration of the original color; as, the steel tarnish in columbite.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 'Devastated' Peter Greste calls on Egypt's president to pardon trio Read more “It’s ironic that the conviction was for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation when ... this [case] is what’s tarnished Egypt’s image,” Clooney told BBC News.
  • (2) He used the pre-recorded speech to deny accusations of embezzlement, saying: "They aim to tarnish my reputation and discredit my integrity, my stance, my political and military history during which I worked hard for Egypt and its people in peace and war."
  • (3) After heat treatment, the test piece was examined for compressive strength, compressive shrinkage, hardness, tarnishing and difference in phase.
  • (4) It is little wonder therefore that the circumstances around its death immediately prompted Westminster speculation that the announcement had simply been rushed forward from after the Easter recess in order to put some political punch back into the prime minister's tarnished anti-Ukip immigration initiative.
  • (5) Like many in Abbottabad, Abbasi believes the town has been unfairly tarnished by its association with a terrorist mastermind who lived undetected just a short distance from Pakistan's elite military training school.
  • (6) Paris police launch inquiry after Chelsea fans seen abusing black man on film Read more Handing down the orders at Stratford magistrates court on Wednesday, he said it was a racist incident that tarnished English football.
  • (7) And each of these groups is giving Clinton, or whoever emerges as the Democratic candidate for the 2016 White House race, at least a two-to-one advantage over a Republican party whose brand has been badly tarnished.
  • (8) The heavy price of Goldsmith’s shameless attempts to tarnish a liberal Muslim is that it will become harder, not easier, for Asians to call out unacceptable practices in their own communities.
  • (9) For the 32-month period these prostheses have been in use, no tissue reaction, tarnish, or corrosion had been observed.
  • (10) A conservative, lower-middle-class district bordering the Golden Horn and predominantly inhabited by Turks from the Black Sea coast, Kasimpasa loves Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the powerful prime minister increasingly reviled across Turkey and tarnished internationally.
  • (11) Anglo-Russian relations remain tarnished by the murder of British citizen and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with a radioactive isotope.
  • (12) A tarnished airline brand coupled with weak finances can spell doom.
  • (13) That did not work out, but such mis-steps don’t seem to have tarnished the rapper’s brand.
  • (14) Meanwhile, the symbols of their adopted country’s world-beating prowess, from football to cars, look somewhat tarnished.
  • (15) He said it was a racist incident that tarnished English football.
  • (16) The true value of these celebrity paintings: like Picasso's Child with a Dove , which left Britain when the Qatar royal family bought it for £50m, is tarnished by massive sums.
  • (17) The alloys which had a high atomic ratio of Au + Pt + Pd + In + Zn to Ag had higher tarnish resistance.
  • (18) The legacy of this side cannot be tarnished, but for the first real time under Guardiola, they are under threat.
  • (19) Polls over the last year showed Chicagoans growing dissatisfied with Emanuel, with the star power that helped him return to Chicago and become mayor clearly tarnished.
  • (20) Is there any chance the Israelis will let us through, and repair their tarnished reputation?