Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To reduce the value or quality of; impair or spoil.
- transitive verb To corrupt morally; debase: synonym: corrupt.
- transitive verb To make ineffective (a contract or legal stipulation, for example); invalidate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To render vicious, faulty, or imperfect; injure the quality or substance of; cause to be defective; impair; spoil; corrupt: as, a vitiated taste.
- To cause to fail of effect, either in whole or in part; render invalid or of no effect; destroy the validity or binding force of, as of a legal instrument or a transaction; divest of legal value or authority; invalidate: as, any undue influence exerted on a jury vitiates their verdict; fraud vitiates a contact; a court is vitiated by the presence of unqualified persons sitting as members of it.
- Synonyms Pollute, Corrupt, etc. (see
taint ), debase, deprave.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make vicious, faulty, or imperfect; to render defective; to injure the substance or qualities of; to impair; to contaminate; to spoil
- transitive verb To cause to fail of effect, either wholly or in part; to make void; to destroy, as the validity or binding force of an instrument or transaction; to annul.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive to
spoil , make faulty; toreduce thevalue ,quality , oreffectiveness of something - verb transitive to
debase ormorally corrupt - verb transitive, archaic to
violate , torape - verb transitive to make something
ineffective , toinvalidate
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
- verb make imperfect
- verb take away the legal force of or render ineffective
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But though there is an inaccuracy in saying that the freezing of water is due to the loss of its heat, no practical error arises from it; nor will a parallel laxity of expression vitiate our statements respecting the multiplication of effects.
Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library Herbert Spencer 1861
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Just remembered that I completely forgot to add a Word of the Week this week - so in view of the topic, how about 'vitiate'?
Light and Shade 2008
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Chief minister BS Yeddyurappa cautioned the Congress against any attempt to "vitiate" the law and order situation with their provocative speeches and asserted that his government was capable of handling such situations.
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It is a duty society owes to itself to discountenance everything which tends to vitiate public taste.
A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010
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(Of course, this finding doesn't vitiate the importance of how children are fed, and eat, after they descend onto the earth.)
Stanton Peele: Human Genome Project: We Discover Much that Genetics Can't Tell Us Stanton Peele 2010
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(Of course, this finding doesn't vitiate the importance of how children are fed, and eat, after they descend onto the earth.)
Stanton Peele: Human Genome Project: We Discover Much that Genetics Can't Tell Us Stanton Peele 2010
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You cannot solve or thwart sin by sinning; you cannot claim to be upholding truth and human dignity by taking selective measures or employing means that vitiate core principles.
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There are a lot of other people who also bear responsibility, however, that does not vitiate Joe Paterno's duties to the victimized children.
Joe Paterno, the Penn State Tragedy and Child Molestation 2011
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He writes that this clause "is not an independent source of federal power" and "would vitiate the enumerated powers principle."
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(Of course, this finding doesn't vitiate the importance of how children are fed, and eat, after they descend onto the earth.)
Stanton Peele: Human Genome Project: We Discover Much that Genetics Can't Tell Us Stanton Peele 2010
brtom commented on the word vitiate
For loud prayer is good for weak lungs and for a vitiated throat. (from Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart)
December 31, 2007
kingparton commented on the word vitiate
Many vitiate their principles in the acquisition of riches; and who can wonder that what is gained by fraud and extortion is enjoyed with tyranny and excess?
Samuel Johnson, "The Rambler (No. CLXXII)"
July 24, 2011