Vitiate

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vitiate \Vi"ti*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Vitiated}; p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Vitiating}.] [L. vitiatus, p. p. vitiare to vitiate,
     fr. vitium a fault, vice. See {Vice} a fault.] [Written also
     {viciate}.]
     1. To make vicious, faulty, or imperfect; to render
        defective; to injure the substance or qualities of; to


        impair; to contaminate; to spoil; as, exaggeration
        vitiates a style of writing; sewer gas vitiates the air.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A will vitiated and growth out of love with the
              truth disposes the understanding to error and
              delusion.                             --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Without care it may be used to vitiate our minds.
                                                    --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the
              taste of readers.                     --Garth.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. 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; as, any undue
        influence exerted on a jury vitiates their verdict; fraud
        vitiates a contract.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vitiate
       v 1: corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch
            the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was
            accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors
            subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: {corrupt},
             {pervert}, {subvert}, {demoralize}, {demoralise}, {debauch},
             {debase}, {profane}, {deprave}, {misdirect}]
       2: make imperfect; "nothing marred her beauty" [syn: {mar}, {impair},
           {spoil}, {deflower}]
       3: take away the legal force of or render ineffective;
          "invalidateas a contract" [syn: {invalidate}, {void}]
          [ant: {validate}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  91 Moby Thesaurus words for "vitiate":
     abate, abolish, abrogate, adulterate, alloy, annihilate, annul,
     bastardize, blemish, bring to nothing, brutalize, buffer, cancel,
     cancel out, canker, cheapen, coarsen, come to nothing, confound,
     contaminate, corrupt, corrupted, counterbalance, damage, debase,
     debauch, debauched, defile, deflower, degenerate, degrade, delete,
     demoralize, denature, deprave, depraved, depreciate, depress,
     desecrate, despoil, destroy, devalue, diminish, distort, downgrade,
     frustrate, harm, hurt, impair, infect, invalidate, lower, mar,
     misuse, negate, negativate, negative, neutralize, nullify, offset,
     pervert, perverted, poison, pollute, prejudice, prostitute, quash,
     ravage, ravish, reduce, revoke, ruin, soil, spoil, stultify, sully,
     suppress, taint, tarnish, thwart, twist, ulcerate, undermine, undo,
     violate, vitiated, void, vulgarize, warp, weaken, withdraw