Befoul
/bɪˈfaʊl/noun
To make dirty, filthy, or morally corrupt.
Did you know?The core of foul once carried both physical disgust and moral ugliness, so befoul can mean not just to dirty something, but to stain its purity in a deeply symbolic way.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
befūlan
“to make foul, soil, defile”
Old English
OE
fūl
“foul, dirty, rotten”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*fūlaz
“foul, dirty, decayed”
Modern English
English
befoul
“to make dirty or corrupt”