befoul
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.
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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
Author and Nantucket Home Owner David Halberstam says that the plan represents "an ecological awakening, a sense of the fragility of the islands, a recognition that what befouls one area befouls all areas."
From Time Magazine Archive
Oh, nature is disgusting; it takes beauty and defiles it: it defaces the ivory-white body we have adored, with the vile cicatrices of maternity: it befouls the altar of the soul.
From Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions Volume 2 by Frank Harris
But in 2026, nothing comparable exists for our befouled media landscape.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
My crime was only discovered after everybody returned from some planned activity I had skipped, fished out their baked potatoes and began choking on their befouled legumes.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 23, 2023
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
The miles-wide oil slick from the spill reported Saturday off Huntington Beach had already befouled beaches and estuaries just to the north.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2021
She screamed when she saw her dripping befouled child.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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
Assassins had visited his house on two different occasions, he said, though given his reputation for befouling the truth, that could mean that none had visited at all.
From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2016
"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
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
Vocabulary lists containing befoul
