From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpollutepol‧lute /pəˈluːt/ ●●○ verb [transitive] 1 SGPDIRTYto make air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty and not suitable for people to use beaches polluted by raw sewage The factory pollutes the air and water.heavily/severely/badly etc polluted The island has been seriously polluted by a copper mine.pollute something with something The rivers had been polluted with aluminium.2 to spoil or ruin something that used to be good an artist spiritually polluted by money and fame3 → pollute somebody’s mind→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
pollute• An investigation revealed that the mine was polluting both the air and the groundwater.• This would implant an electronic smart card in cars' engine-management systems, to monitor the quantity of polluting emissions.• But the association of menstrual blood pollutes her and she loses for ever the pristine purity of a female child.• Giving companies tax incentives to clean up and use vacant, polluted lots in cities.• Many of these factories pollute the air with hydrogen sulfide.• Money has polluted the democratic spirit of American politics.• The dreams of nineteenth-century poets polluted the psychic atmosphere of the great boroughs and suburbs of New York.• It is believed the spill is continuing to pollute the region.• The company is charged with polluting the River Mersey by allowing crude oil to enter the river.• The factory explosion, which polluted the surrounding area with dioxin, was reportedly caused by negligence.• The group wants to ban logging activities that could pollute the water.• As well as not functioning in a submersed situation, dying cells, releasing adverse substances will pollute the water.heavily/severely/badly etc polluted• There was little information on the health of people living in that area, which had been known to be heavily polluted.• Water in the area is severely polluted.• The city is being severely polluted by an array of emission-releasing industries, an oil refinery and three million cars.• The river is already heavily polluted by chemical and metallurgical industries.• Sometimes there were sandy heaths which looked like parts of Surrey and sometimes massive, sulphurous and heavily polluted industrial plants.• In general, in the authority's industrialized areas the emphasis in pollution control is on cleaning up heavily polluted rivers.Origin pollute (1300-1400) Latin past participle of polluere 