as in pernicious
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Dissimilar Words
1
as in polluting
to make unfit for use by the addition of something harmful or undesirable
supplies of meat that had been defiled by maggots
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in violating
to treat (a sacred place or object) shamefully or with great disrespect
art conservators were careful not to do anything that might defile the holy relic
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defiling
Adjective
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Microplastics are tiny fragments, that can be as small as 1/25,000th of an inch (1 micrometer) and are a pernicious part of the plastic pollution crisis.—
Laura Paddison,
CNN Money,
29 Apr. 2026 -
What is more pernicious than the denial is the tacit acceptance of his behavior in the community, as the community was the lifeblood of his art.—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Engineers and safety experts are solving problems in a new technology that gets us off expensive and polluting fossil fuels.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
9 May 2026
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Sunil Bector, an attorney with the Sierra Club, said that heavily polluting facilities will reap overlapping benefits from the assault on the Clean Air Act.—
Mark Olalde,
ProPublica,
8 May 2026
Verb
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Twenty defendants — including guards on duty while McElroy was in labor, a nurse, a physician’s assistant and the county sheriff, who runs the jail — are named in the complaint and accused of violating her constitutional rights.—
Abigail Brooks,
NBC news,
13 May 2026
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Former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas is being fined $214,000 for violating campaign finance rules by accepting excessive contributions from people who were doing business with the city, the Chicago Board of Ethics announced yesterday.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
13 May 2026
Adjective
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The horror feature draws on a Vietnamese urban legend about a cursed Saigon apartment block from the 1990s, following an estranged young man who returns home to discover his mother is possessed.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
13 May 2026
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Welcome indeed to Widow’s Bay, both the island located 40 miles off the coast of New England and the fantastic Apple TV+ series about that (possibly) (probably) (come on, definitely) cursed island.—
Jen Chaney,
Vulture,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Kouri Richins, a Utah woman convicted of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, is set to be sentenced for murder on Wednesday.—
Meredith Deliso,
ABC News,
13 May 2026
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One of the charges against Richins is connected to that incident after prosecutors accused her of poisoning his sandwich in an attempt to kill him.—
Minyvonne Burke,
NBC news,
13 May 2026
Adjective
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Their jail is strange and unwholesome.—
Robert Rubsam,
The Atlantic,
26 Mar. 2026
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Grievous bodily harm, nonconsensual drugging, murder, yes…still, thank god there’s nothing unwholesome here, like say a man in a dress.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
14 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Well remember, there’s a corrupt shadow hanging over the Supreme Court.—
NBC news,
NBC news,
10 May 2026
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Voicer Chris Lee conjures a hypothetically corrupt fire inspection system to oppose battery storage.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
9 May 2026
Adjective
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And this has lent Margot a debased sort of celebrity.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
6 Apr. 2026
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But the influencer landscape is getting debased and splintered and a bit draining, even for Kylie.—
Nate Freeman,
Vanity Fair,
11 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Defiling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defiling. Accessed 18 May. 2026.
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