Adjacent Words

Vitiate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VI'TIATE, v.t. [L. vitio. See vice and Viciate.]
1. To injure the substance or qualities of a thing, so as to impair or spoil its use and value. Thus we say, luxury vitiates the humors of the body; evil examples vitiate the morals of youth; language is vitiated by foreign idioms.
This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers.
2. To render defective; to destroy; as the validity or binding force of an instrument or transaction. Any undue influence exerted on a jury vitiates their verdict. Fraud vitiates a contract.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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, vitiate, deprave, misdirect]
2: make imperfect; "nothing marred her beauty" [syn: mar, impair, spoil, deflower, vitiate]
3: take away the legal force of or render ineffective; "invalidate a contract" [syn: invalidate, void, vitiate] [ant: validate]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (-ated; -ating) Etymology: Latin vitiatus, past participle of vitiare, from vitium fault, vice Date: 1534 1. to make faulty or defective ; impair <the comic impact is vitiated by obvious haste — William Styron> 2. to debase in moral or aesthetic status <a mind vitiated by prejudice> 3. to make ineffective <fraud vitiates a contract> Synonyms: see debase • vitiation noun • vitiator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 impair the quality or efficiency of; corrupt, debase, contaminate. 2 make invalid or ineffectual. Derivatives: vitiation n. vitiator n. Etymology: L vitiare f. vitium VICE(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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. A will vitiated and growth out of love with the truth disposes the understanding to error and delusion. --South. Without care it may be used to vitiate our minds. --Burke. This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers. --Garth. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(vitiates, vitiating, vitiated) If something is vitiated, its effectiveness is spoiled or weakened. (FORMAL) Strategic policy during the War was vitiated because of a sharp division between 'easterners' and 'westerners'... But this does not vitiate his scholarship. VERB: be V-ed, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Impair, spoil, deteriorate, debase, deprave, corrupt, pollute, adulterate, injure, contaminate, infect, defile, poison, render defective, make vicious. 2. Make void, destroy, cause to fail of effect.

Moby Thesaurus

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