From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdefilede‧file1 /dɪˈfaɪl/ verb [transitive] formal BAD BEHAVIOUR OR ACTIONSto make something less pure and good, especially by showing no respect Hallam’s tomb had been defiled and looted.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
defile• Tombstones in a Jewish cemetery had been defiled.• Abusive behavior starts in the heart of one person, but eventually the whole system is defiled.• Chinatown child, you're a Chinatown child, cursed by the temple your father defiled.• They had been defiled, and I expected punishment.• Hindus attach great importance to food, and her presence where it was prepared defiled everything the community ate.• Exodus also prescribes death for those who defile the Sabbath or perform any work on that day.defilede‧file2 /dɪˈfaɪl, ˈdiːfaɪl/ noun [countable] formal TTRa narrow passage, especially through mountainsExamples from the Corpus
defile• This is a lovely climb in itself, up what quite soon turns from a valley into a defile.• Soon we were alone, moving through a narrow defile between two teetering antique shops.• The narrow defile which had once been bridged by the Romans was now dammed to create a vast reservoir upstream.• The outward journey was quite uneventful as far as the Wadi Tamit, a steep defile leading down the escarpment on to the coastal plain.• The defile itself continues but you, unless you are hardy and ambitious, do not.• The mountains rise abruptly from the wedged defiles, separating the hollows where the dwellings are clustered.Origin defile (1300-1400) defoul “to crush with the feet, make dirty” ((13-17 centuries)), from Old French defouler, from fouler “to step on” 