defiled

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The writer Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel laureate, denounced Malinche as a kind of malevolent Eve whose submission to Cortés forever defiled Mexico’s mixed identity.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2026

Close friend Jo Peraldi finds it hard to believe that a day of high emotion surrounding the funeral of Orsoni's mother could have been defiled in such a way.

From BBC • Jan. 17, 2026

The Seleucids captured the holy Temple of Jerusalem and defiled it by erecting an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside.

From National Geographic • Dec. 7, 2023

A Voting Rights Act reauthorization passed the Senate 85 to 8 in 1982, when Republican President Ronald Reagan called it “a strong, bipartisan message: No American’s vote shall be defiled, diluted or denied.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 19, 2021

Theseus, the thinker, rejected the idea that a man could be guilty of murder when he had not known what he was doing and that those who helped such a one could be reckoned defiled.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton