vitiating

verb

present participle of vitiate
1
as in tainting
to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable believed that luxury vitiates even the most principled person

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2
as in damaging
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of numerous grammatical errors vitiate the effectiveness of your writing

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in degrading
to lower in character, dignity, or quality a penchant for coarse language vitiates what is otherwise a refined literary style

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of vitiating In the three years since, the Court has delivered even more wins for the movement—rulings undercutting the rights of trans people and immigrants, vitiating the Voting Rights Act, and expanding Presidential power. — Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vitiating
  1. tainting
  2. damaging
  3. degrading
  4. spoiling
  5. marring
  6. corrupting
  7. poisoning
  8. injuring
Verb
  • Several homeowners near Meta’s massive Newton County data center have filed a lawsuit accusing the tech company and others of tainting their water and destroying their rural way of life.
    — Zachary Hansen, AJC.com, 1 Sep. 2026
  • For all intents and purposes, an unknown actor can wade unburdened into the depths of Bond, able to transform without a viewer’s prior expectation tainting the image of 007.
    — Emily Maskell, IndieWire, 10 July 2026
Definition of tainting
Verb
  • The ship dragged its anchor along the seabed for about 80 miles, damaging two telecommunications cables, according to a court statement.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026
  • Kennedy’s fringe beliefs, such as his zealous anti-vaccine views, his rejection of germ theory, and his false claim that 5G is damaging our brains and causing cancer.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • The experiments will test whether the reactor’s exhaust system can endure the punishment of such high-performance plasma without degrading.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Faulkner said he is fed up with Citation’s yearslong pattern of degrading his pastures.
    — Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of degrading
Verb
  • But there were also drawbacks, mainly a fear of accidentally spoiling certain events that occur in season six.
    — Lisa de los Reyes, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Without spoiling the big second-act reveal, no one in this play – or in the audience – has an unchallengeable claim on the truth.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • The Trib is withholding Nick’s full name to avoid marring his reputation in the eyes of future employers or others who might run a search on him.
    — Kate Payne, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The latter track takes overt inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, as Jepsen beckons her love to engage in life’s vices with her, like marring bedsheets with fruit stains and dashing nude through the garden.
    — Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of marring
Verb
  • Cartels instead target local leaders, either corrupting them or killing those who stand in their way.
    — Megan Janetsky, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2026
  • But there’s a difference between drinking before entering the ring once and corrupting bullfighting for years.
    — Stephen Bates, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of corrupting
Verb
  • Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times that the cause was rhabdomyolysis, also known as rhabdo, a rare condition in which skeletal muscle breaks down and dies quickly, poisoning the body.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Her father told The New York Times that she’d been stricken with rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscles can break down during exertion, poisoning the body.
    — Larry Neumeister, Chicago Tribune, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of poisoning
Verb
  • In Paris, rioters targeted police with Molotov cocktails at the end of Saturday’s march on the city’s eastern edge, injuring three officers and setting a car ablaze, police said.
    — Angela Charlton, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Several days later, a commuter train near Barcelona derailed, killing the driver and injuring dozens of other people.
    — Hernan Muñoz, NBC news, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of injuring

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vitiates
vitiating
vitreous
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Cite this Entry

“Vitiating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vitiating. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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