vi·ti·ate
Audio Help [vish-ee-eyt] Pronunciation Key
Audio Help [vish-ee-eyt] Pronunciation Key –verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing.
| 1. | to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil. |
| 2. | to impair or weaken the effectiveness of. |
| 3. | to debase; corrupt; pervert. |
| 4. | to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate: to vitiate a claim. |
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
vitiate
To learn more about vitiate visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| vi·ti·ate
Audio Help (vĭsh'ē-āt') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. vi·ti·at·ed, vi·ti·at·ing, vi·ti·ates
[Latin vitiāre, vitiāt-, from vitium, fault.] vi'ti·a·ble (vĭsh'ē-ə-bəl) adj., vi'ti·a'tion n., vi'ti·a'tor n. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
vitiate (v.)
1534, from L. vitiatus, pp. of vitiare "to make faulty, injure, spoil, corrupt," from vitium "fault, defect, blemish, crime, vice" (see vice (1)).
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| vitiate | |
verb | |
| 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" |
| 2. | make imperfect; "nothing marred her beauty" [syn: mar] |
| 3. | take away the legal force of or render ineffective; "invalidate a contract" [syn: invalidate] [ant: validate] |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
Vitiate
Vi"ci*ate\, v. t. See Vitiate. [R.]| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
vitiate
vitiate was Word of the Day on March 28, 2000.
| Dictionary.com Word of the Day |
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