befoul

At long last, the U.S. is thinking beyond the tailpipe to examine hidden ways that cars befoul the planet.

From Slate ● Nov. 9, 2023

He has persevered through torrential downpours, droughts and, most vexingly, increasingly elaborate halftime shows that befoul his beloved turf.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2023

Cow pies befoul apple carts, a teddy bear and a man trying to save a young girl.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 23, 2022

The aftereffects of this campaign may befoul our civic life for some time to come.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 23, 2016

But then, Samir said that the ghosts would never risk stealing our breath because Rasseem was with us, and his breath could befoul the afterlife.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

And when drilling goes bad, it befouls the environment and the greater economy.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2021

For all the burlesque that befouls our politics, the quadrennial ritual on January 20 is when we are humbled by the reminder of our own solemn charge.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 20, 2021

Perhaps most distressing about SantaCon is its size and the way that it shuts down and befouls dozens of blocks.

From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2013

Neither is the spread of U.S. industrialism which changes and befouls the Midwestern city.

From Time Magazine Archive

Shakespeare, in the induction of Taming of the Shrew, befouls "Christopher Sly" in a similar way, but Sly thinks it was "nothing but a dream."

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

But in 2026, nothing comparable exists for our befouled media landscape.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

Smudge-ugly oil derricks befouled the graves, and by around 1905, graves and gravestones had been moved to a new Home of Peace, well east of downtown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2024

A bad apple might be icky and distasteful, but befouled meat caused a related, but totally distinct, sensation cluster of contamination, queasiness and defilement.

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2021

Our nation’s first national river, the Buffalo River in Arkansas, was befouled last summer by algae that sickened people, but the U.S.

From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2018

“Do forgive me. The Grand Maester befouled himself in dying, and the stink was so abominable that I thought I might choke.”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

Kingsolver explores how anyone might possibly find a safe place in this world that we keep befouling through ignorance, greed or incompetence.

From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2018

Well, for Moore, it’s a blueprint: one rich guy’s knack for befouling the neighborhood foretells another’s ability to mess up the land of the free.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 21, 2018

"And then there comes a threat" — Big Coal, enabling modern contrivances while befouling nature — "to their way of life. And they will have to defend it."

From US News ● Jan. 22, 2016

Some of the dead animals appeared to have been moved into piles, including two carcasses befouling a creek supplying the 175-acre property with water, she said.

From Reuters ● Dec. 2, 2014

Despite his lead codpiece, the dust—undoubtedly—filtered in and at him, brought him daily, so long as he failed to emigrate, its little load of befouling filth.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick