Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Contaminate   Listen
verb
Contaminate  v. t.  (past & past part. contaminated; pres. part. contaminating)  To soil, stain, or corrupt by contact; to tarnish; to sully; to taint; to pollute; to defile. "Shall we now Contaminate our figures with base bribes?" "I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated."
Synonyms: To pollute; defile; sully; taint; tarnish; soil; stain; corrupt.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Contaminate" Quotes from Famous Books



... in a dem parody of your uniform? Look at her! Could turn round in the jacket without taking it off. Room for both legs in one of the overalls. Cap on his beastly neck. Gloves like a pair of ... Get inside you!... Take the thing in with a pair of tongs and bury it where it won't contaminate the dung-pits. Burn it! Shoot it! Drown it! D'ye hear?... And then I'll put you under arrest for ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren

... failed to follow the Master's teaching in its true perfection. We have planted in ourselves a seed of corruption, and we have permitted—nay, some of us have encouraged—its poisonous growth, till it now threatens to contaminate the whole field ...
— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli

... forced construction, and coincides with the rest of the passage,—"I am contaminate through thee, though ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 3, No. 16, February, 1859 • Various

... of their own, but of the perversity of those who use them wrongfully. Corrupt mind never understood word healthily, and even as seemly words profit not depraved minds, so those which are not altogether seemly avail not to contaminate the well-disposed, any more than mire can sully the rays of the sun or earthly foulness the beauties of the sky. What books, what words, what letters are holier, worthier, more venerable than those of the Divine Scriptures? Yet many there be, who, interpreting them ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... supporting robbers—shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honours For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... of the City cried, 'Be the will of Allah achieved, and the inviolacy of Shagpat made manifest! Thou barber, thou! do thy worst to contaminate him, and take the punishment in store for thee. And if it is written thou succeed, then keep thy filthy ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... American experience at arms. The most contagious of all moral diseases is insubordination, and it has no more respect for rank than the plague. When higher authority winks at its existence among the rank and file, it will contaminate upward as well as down. Once a man condones remissness, his own belief in discipline begins to wither. The officer who tolerates slackness in the dress of his men soon ceases to tend his own appearance, and if he is not called to account, his sloppy habits will shortly begin ...
— The Armed Forces Officer - Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 • U. S. Department of Defense

... serious consequences which narrowly escape a fatal ending, are common among women who attempt to rid themselves of an unwelcome pregnancy. As they are ignorant of aseptic precautions, their manipulations must necessarily contaminate the site of operation; for this reason and others as well women who attempt to perform an abortion upon themselves imperil their lives. The danger is scarcely less when abortion is induced unlawfully by incompetent operators; for lack of skill, the need of secrecy, and the desire of haste ...
— The Prospective Mother - A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy • J. Morris Slemons

... laughed the doctor. "In work of that kind you get into every variety of place; and some of it is new to you. Never mind! No one can contaminate you. It is the law that only a man can degrade himself. Knowing things will not harm you. Doing them is a different matter. What you know will be a protection. What you do ruins——if it is wrong. You are not harmed, you are only disgusted. Think it over, and in a few days come back and ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter

... what I meant," Alec said in a shaken voice. "If this does blow out, not only do we lose the water but we're going to contaminate this aquifer with radioactivity from here to ...
— The Thirst Quenchers • Rick Raphael

... generosity the unhappy girl repaid by an ingratitude so bad, so dreadful, that at last her excellent patroness was obliged to separate her from her own young ones, fearful lest her vicious example should contaminate their purity: she has sent her here to be healed, even as the Jews of old sent their diseased to the troubled pool of Bethesda; and, teachers, superintendent, I beg of you not to allow the waters to ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... untainted men. We subject them to a course of rigorous discipline in matters of diet and exercise, the sole effect of which is to stimulate them still more against society. We allow them a certain amount of intercourse with each other; liberty to the old to contaminate the young; to the veteran ruffian to enlist and drill the new recruit; to all to plan their new campaigns, and hatch new conspiracies, and then disperse them throughout the country to sow the seeds of sedition, and raise the standard of rebellion wherever they may go. This is really what ...
— Six Years in the Prisons of England • A Merchant - Anonymous

... sufficient for the needs of the traveller during the period of his journey. The construction of an air-tight vessel was easy enough; but however large the body of air conveyed, even though its oxygen should not be exhausted, the carbonic acid given out by breathing would very soon so contaminate the whole that life would be impossible. To eliminate this element it would only be necessary to carry a certain quantity of lime-water, easily calculated, and by means of a fan or similar instrument to drive the whole of the air periodically through the vessel containing ...
— Across the Zodiac • Percy Greg

... it? You allow her to contaminate her beautiful presence with the sight of that traitor, that cheat at cards, that murderer, that devil? Ah, but I will not have it! I am her champion. I will save her. I will save you. I will take you both away to Egypt, and surround you with my beautiful cats, and fan ...
— Simon the Jester • William J. Locke

... that he had been the means of turning him from the error of his ways—he and the chaplain between them, anyhow. He even helped him to be allowed to be kept a little separate from the other prisoners (lest they should contaminate him!), and in lots of ways made his life a bit ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... treated when convicted of capital crimes, which is by putting them into a large iron caldron, and pounding them to pieces with wooden pestles, because none of their royal blood must be spilt on the ground, it being, by their religion, thought great impiety to contaminate the divine blood by mixing it with earth." When Kublai Khan defeated and took his uncle Nayan, who had rebelled against him, he caused Nayan to be put to death by being wrapt in a carpet and tossed to and fro till he died, "because he would not have the ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... suffered from want of exercise and pure air, parliament grudgingly permitted him to leave his solitary cell for an hour morning and evening, at such time as the court might be clear of other prisoners whom he could contaminate. And when De Berquin complained that his books and writing materials had been denied him, the extent of the parliament's generosity was to grant him "the epistles of St. Jerome and some other Catholic books." At length, ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... been exemplified and reviewed are based on the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a mana principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems little doubt that the framework of ancient ...
— Taboo and Genetics • Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard

... debase, deprave, soil, stain, taint, besmear, contaminate, defile, pollute, spoil, ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald

... that dwindles here. Contrasted faults thro' all his manners rein; Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And e'en in penance planning sins anew. All evils here contaminate the mind, That opulence departed leaves behind: For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date, When commerce proudly flourish'd thro' the state; At her command the palace learn'd to rise, Again the long fall'n column sought the skies; The canvass glow'd, beyond e'en nature warm; The ...
— Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World • Anonymous

... armistice which he considered as dishonouring the sovereign for whom he was acting, had not the smallest desire to interfere with the disposal of the rebels whom he was so anxious to secure. It was not for their punishment, but for the security of those whom he feared they might contaminate by their principles, that he resolved to keep them in safe custody till the farther pleasure of his Sicilian Majesty should be known; and, in this, even Cardinal Ruffo, it ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... of speech, this coil Of statement, comment, query and response, Tatters all too contaminate for use, Have no renewing: He, the ...
— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... hate him. She was moved to this by no feeling of concern for Bennett. It was not a consideration that she owed to him, but something rather that was due to herself. Yet, try as she would, the hatred still remained. She could not put it from her. Hurt her and contaminate her as it did, in spite of all her best efforts, in spite of her very prayers, the evil thing abode with her, deep-rooted, strong, malignant. She saw that in the end she would continue in her profession, but she believed that she could not go on with it consistently, based as ...
— A Man's Woman • Frank Norris

... Arlington's house at the end of St. James's Park, the site of Buckingham House. 'In possession of the Cartoons of Raphael,' Fuseli lectured, angrily, on the subject, years afterwards, 'and with the magnificence of Whitehall before his eyes, he suffered Verrio to contaminate the walls of his palaces.' But there was raging then a sort of epidemical belief in native deficiency and in the absolute necessity of importing art talent. In his first picture Verrio represented the king in a glorification of naval ...
— Art in England - Notes and Studies • Dutton Cook

... plundered, show any way partial to the idols of Yaghma (a city in Turkestan famous for its beauties)?—He who has in both his hands such dates as he can relish, will not think of throwing stones at the bunches of dates on their trees. In common, such as are in indigent circumstances will contaminate the skirt of innocency with sin; and such as are suffering from hunger will steal bread:—When a ravenous dog has found a piece of meat, he asks not, saying: Is this the flesh of the prophet Salah's ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... you is your honour, and there where you are going everyone, without counting my lord, will try to rob you of it, but you see well what it is worth; for that reason do not lose it save willingly and in proper manner. Now in order not to contaminate your virtue before God and before man, except for a legitimate motive, take heed that your chance of marriage be not damaged beforehand, otherwise you will go to ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 1 • Honore de Balzac

... that because her mother was a flighty woman with bad taste and the wrong surrounding her poor little girl would contaminate me?" ...
— Robin • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... brought into houses by flies, from fecal matter and other excretions, but they are carried away by the rains and sometimes contaminate sources of water-supply. It is furthermore extremely probable that bacteria in particles of dust from dried fecal material may be carried by the winds from privies into wells and houses, and as a consequence ...
— Health on the Farm - A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene • H. F. Harris

... fraternity," says he, "was wont to afford me much joy. But now how different! though absent, I deeply lament the more your tribulations and calamities; the manner in which the Pagans contaminate the sanctuaries of God, and shed the blood of saints around the altar, devastating the joy of our house, and trampling on the bodies of holy men in the temple of God, as though they were treading on a dunghill ...
— Bibliomania in the Middle Ages • Frederick Somner Merryweather

... while Miss Podsnap, who in dogs can brook No name that smacks of Teuton, snatches up, Lest you contaminate it with a look, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 5, 1917 • Various

... is so fond of me that he imagines—he imagines that you are going to contaminate us with your atheism, your disregard for public opinion, your strange ideas. I have told him repeatedly that, at bottom, you are ...
— Dona Perfecta • B. Perez Galdos

... Sicily, nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners, of this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, with her savage allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians: our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... us the looking-glass, you blockhead! and take care not to contaminate its brightness by the communication of ...
— The Pretentious Young Ladies • Moliere

... returned. "I congratulate you upon the manner in which you have trained your servants!" He ignored Dunlavey and smiled at Norton. "Mr. Norton," he said with polite mockery, "I feel certain that you agree with me that we have no wish to contaminate this temple ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer

... the gold was consigned to the Delagoa branch of the Transvaal Bank from the Durban branch of the same institution. The allegation against the consignment, it was considered by the prize court, did not sufficiently contaminate the shipment since the destination was proved to be a neutral one and the point of departure an English port. In February the gold was returned to the Bank of Durban because the ultimate destination of the consignment ...
— Neutral Rights and Obligations in the Anglo-Boer War • Robert Granville Campbell

... which includes man, the roof and crown of things, and Christ, in whom is revealed to us its inner character and meaning. It is not the province of faith either to flout scientific knowledge, or to contaminate the material on which science works by intercalating what M. Le Roy calls 'transhistorical symbols'—myths in fact—which do not become true by being recognised as false, as the new apologetic seems to suggest. Faith is not the born storyteller of Modernist ...
— Outspoken Essays • William Ralph Inge

... carcass is not drawn, but immediately frozen hard, the bacteria remain inactive and no essential change occurs. If the carcass is stored without freezing, or remains for even a short time at a high temperature, the bacteria will begin to grow through the intestinal walls and contaminate the flesh. ...
— The Dollar Hen • Milo M. Hastings

... are all very fine,' he said, 'but surely oftentimes you play music from the abominable Mass, not fitting indeed in a holy place set apart for the worship of the Lord according to our pure faith?' 'Ah! Pastor, but the notes cannot contaminate,' Monsieur Gabriel would answer; 'Luther himself made use of the monk's melodies in his canticles.' And Pastor Mueller retired to his dirty, airless house, feeling rebuked himself where he had wished ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... self-conscious existence of the white or dominant ethnic group is synonymous with the preservation of all that has meaning and inspiration in its past and hope for its future. It forbids by law, therefore, or by the equally effective social taboo, anything that would tend to contaminate the purity of its stock or jeopardize the ...
— Applied Eugenics • Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson

... was discovered generally shared his fate. But it was useless. They were hung, they were tortured, they were transported to Barbadoes, and, finally, such numbers were captured, that it was feared they would contaminate the very slaves, and they were confined on the island of Innisboffin, off the coast of Connemara. Yet more priests came to take the place of those who were thus removed, and the ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack

... transition period; its population had just passed the 200,000 mark, and already included a fair number of lunatics who clamored for a million people. But it had not yet made up its mind that dumping sewage into the Bay and believing that it would not contaminate the adjoining lake, whence came the water supply, was a system apt to result in a large proportion of typhoid fever cases. People had typhoid, and either died of it or got better, and in the latter event they resumed the drinking ...
— William Adolphus Turnpike • William Banks

... Mixer, saturating half a slice of bread in the sauce of the stew. "I can't afford to act otherwise than like I am a lady at one of them dinners, but the minute I'm home I beat it for the icebox. I suppose it's all right to be socially elegant, but we hadn't ought to let it contaminate our food none. And even at that New York hotel this summer you had to make trouble to get fed proper. I wanted strawberry shortcake, and what do you reckon they dealt me? A thing looking like a marble palace—sponge cake and whipped cream with a few red spots in between. ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... life. Unfortunately it fell to Josephus to write amid these surroundings his account of the Jewish wars and the history of the Jews, and he may have been driven to distortion to keep his perilous position at court. The moral environment, too, was such as to contaminate those who had not a deep faith and a strong Hebrew consciousness. At Alexandria it was possible to achieve a harmony between Judaism and the spiritual teaching of Greek philosophy; but the basic conceptions of ...
— Josephus • Norman Bentwich

... us, That struck the foremost man of all this world, But for supporting robbers;—shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes? And sell the mighty space of our large honors For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman. 237 SHAKS.: Jul. Caesar, ...
— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various

... and common sense of the reader, if this grievous persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly thundering in the ears of the slave States—'Your free blacks contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source of horrid danger to yourselves! They must be removed, or your destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as might be expected—'We know it; we dread the presence of this ...
— Thoughts on African Colonization • William Lloyd Garrison

... was not gained without some sacrifice of his spiritual character, and the "secular" Brahmin had to bow, quoad sacra, to the penniless Bhut, or "regular" Brahmin, who, refusing to contaminate his sanctity by doing any kind of work, ate of the temple, or lived by royal bounty or private charity, and by the free breakfasts without which a marriage, "thread ceremony" or funeral in a gentleman's house could not be respectably celebrated. Idleness and sanctity are a powerful combination, ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)

... to come and live with him on board the frigate; but to that my mother would not consent, saying, that she had, it was true, degraded herself and her family by marrying a coxswain, but she was not going to further contaminate herself by mixing with the vulgar creatures on board. In this resolve I think my mother was right; but her dismissal and disgrace was followed up by my father being disrated and turned into the main-top, for no other reason in the world than such being ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... recovered; and fixing her eyes on Mrs. Temple, cried—"You know not, Madam, what you do; you know not whom you are relieving, or you would curse me in the bitterness of your heart. Come not near me, Madam, I shall contaminate you. I am the viper that stung your peace. I am the woman who turned the poor Charlotte out to perish in the street. Heaven have mercy! I see her now," continued she looking at Lucy; "such, such was the fair bud of innocence that my vile arts ...
— Charlotte Temple • Susanna Rowson

... acted. And when any of her subjects have proved obstreperous and disobedient, and stubborn in their resistance to her orders, she has invariably turned them out of her fold, so that they should not infect and contaminate the good and the loyal. It was in this sense that St. Paul, the inspired Apostle, in the very first century of the Christian era, instructed Titus to construe and administer the law committed to his charge. After warning Titus that there ...
— The Purpose of the Papacy • John S. Vaughan

... Silver chloride should not be heated to complete fusion, since a slight loss by volatilization is possible at high temperatures. The temperature of fusion is not always sufficient to destroy filter shreds; hence these should not be allowed to contaminate the precipitate.] ...
— An Introductory Course of Quantitative Chemical Analysis - With Explanatory Notes • Henry P. Talbot

... here. Contrasted faults through all his manners reign: Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And ev'n in penance planning sins anew. 130 All evils here contaminate the mind That opulence departed leaves behind; For wealth was theirs,[16] not far removed the date When commerce proudly nourished through the state, At her command the palace learnt to rise,[17] 135 Again the ...
— Selections from Five English Poets • Various

... afraid zat they will contaminate you," she explained, noting the look of dismay in Ruth's eyes. "Zey have never adorned my body, zey have never been expose to the speculating eye of the public, zey have not hid from view these charms of mine. No, these are fair and virtuous fabrics. It is you who will be ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... have these would-be republicans to allege as an excuse in their favour? They have no convents to initiate young girls in the arts of dissimulation; no debauched court to contaminate, by its example, the wavering principles of the weak part of the sex, or sap the more determined ones of those whose mind is of a firmer texture; nor have they any friendly, sympathizing confessors to draw a spunge, as it were, over the trespasses hid in a snug corner of their heart. ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... sneak and traitor, and not for ten thousand dollars—not for a hundred thousand dollars—not to save my very life would I do such a dastardly thing! You have made a mistake in your man! Take back your dirty money! I would not touch a dollar of it for the world! It would contaminate me!" ...
— Frank Merriwell's Races • Burt L. Standish

... am not sure that I do not agree with Mrs. Proudie in thinking that dancing would contaminate a conversazione. What are your ideas, Miss Grantly?" Griselda was never very good at a joke, and imagined that Lord Lufton wanted to escape the trouble of dancing with her. This angered her. For the only species of love-making, or flirtation, or sociability between herself as ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope

... exculpation is given by Constantine himself in his address of thanks to the Hispellates: "We are pleased and grateful for your determination to raise a temple in honor of our family and of ourselves; and we accept it, provided you do not contaminate it with superstitious practices." The honor of a temple and of a priesthood, therefore, was offered and accepted as a political demonstration, as an act of loyalty, and as an occasion for public festivities, both inaugural ...
— Pagan and Christian Rome • Rodolfo Lanciani

... means the finest poem that Emily Bronte ever wrote. It has least of her matchless, incommunicable quality. There is one verse, the fifth, that recalls almost painfully the frigid poets of Deism of the eighteenth century. But even that association cannot destroy or contaminate its superb sincerity and dignity. If it recalls the poets of Deism, it recalls no less one of the most ancient of all metaphysical poems, the poem ...
— The Three Brontes • May Sinclair

... moist, either by absorption from the atmosphere, or from liquids coming into contact with it, micro-organisms (especially the mould fungi) commence to multiply, and the long thread forms rapidly penetrate the substance of the plug, and gain access to and contaminate ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... bark." I have no doubt that the carcasses of these large reptiles, those of the manatees, which weigh five hundred pounds, and the presence of the porpoises (toninas) with their mucilaginous skin, may contaminate the water, especially in the creeks, where the river has little velocity. Yet the spots where we found the most fetid water, were not always those where dead animals were accumulated on the beach. When, in such burning climates, ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt

... zamarras of sheepskin, painted all over with devils and the portraits of their own faces surrounded by flames. These poor creatures wore also flame-adorned caps called corozas, shaped like bishops' mitres, and were gagged with blocks of wood, lest they should contaminate the populace by some declaration of their heresy, while in their hands they bore tapers, which the monks who accompanied them relighted from time to time if they ...
— Fair Margaret • H. Rider Haggard

... deny that he believed Senator Dilworthy to be guilty—but what then? Was it such an extraordinary case? For his part, even allowing the Senator to be guilty, he did not think his continued presence during the few remaining days of the Session would contaminate the Senate to a dreadful degree. [This humorous sally was received with smiling admiration—notwithstanding it was not wholly new, having originated with the Massachusetts General in the House a day or two before, upon the occasion ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... simply because it was a little town, and could not keep English ships out of its waters. A meeting of the patriotic citizens was held, and it was resolved that no tea should go out of Greenwich to comfort the bodies and contaminate the principles of people in any part of the Colonies; and they would show their British tyrants that it was just as unsafe to send tea into Cohansey Creek as it was to send it into the ...
— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton

... different degrees of Malay intermixture, and believed that the very black people found on some islands, "whose complexion still remains a few shades deeper than that of certain families in the same islands" were to be accounted for by certain families making it "a point of honour not to contaminate their blood." The theory is at all events striking. We have a "White Australia policy" on the mainland to-day; this speculation assumes a kind of "Black Australasia policy" on the part of certain families of islanders from ...
— Laperouse • Ernest Scott

... exclaimed. "Nobody else would have thought of it." And he sat down in a rocking-chair, in which some cushions had been placed, and, not wishing to contaminate his surroundings by smoke, he leaned back and enjoyed it as he had enjoyed few things in his life. "Yes, she done it," he kept saying. "She slipped over here, busy as she is at home, and done it just to please me. She is a sweet, ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben

... of March remember: Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice? What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers,—shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes And sell the mighty space of our large honours For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, ...
— Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare [Hudson edition]

... shrieking ghosts, fluttered through the doors and made off in every direction. Those women who stroll about the streets with uncovered faces, who paint their eyebrows and lips for the diversion of strangers, who are shut out from the world like mad dogs, that they may not contaminate the people—all these women were now let loose! Some of them had grown old since the prison-gates had been closed upon them, but the flame of evil passion still flickered in their sunken eyes. Alas! what pestilence has been ...
— Halil the Pedlar - A Tale of Old Stambul • Mr Jkai

... are introduced and concluded by Fielding's own denunciation of this, "the blackest sin, which can contaminate the hands, or pollute the soul of man." And from these pages we may learn his own solemnly declared belief in a peculiarly "immediate interposition of the Divine providence" in the detection of this crime; and also his faith in "the fearful and tremendous sentence of eternal ...
— Henry Fielding: A Memoir • G. M. Godden

... Vinifera sorts, where the cap must be removed before the anthers can be reached, forcep blades with a flat surface are best. There is, of course, some danger when the buds are well developed that the pollen may be squeezed out and so reach the stigma or adhere to the instrument and thus contaminate future crosses. The first danger must be avoided carefully by the skill of the operator, while the second is easily overcome by sterilizing the forceps in alcohol. An effort should be made to fertilize as many of the flowers in the cluster ...
— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick

... of great and wealthy cities are not the accidental victims of misfortune; they are born to its hard inheritance, and their numbers contaminate more, who, were it not for their own misconduct and imprudence, might have shared a ...
— An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations. • William Playfair

... cats to sleep with children. Others have a prejudice against cats, but not against dogs. The truth is, that they both contaminate the air by respiration and perspiration, in the same manner that adults do. And aside from the fact that they are often infested by lice and other insects, and addicted to uncleanly habits, they ought always to be excluded, and with iron bars and bolts, if necessary, ...
— The Young Mother - Management of Children in Regard to Health • William A. Alcott

... POTATOES.—In general, potatoes are stored or preserved in pits, cellars, pies, or camps; but, whatever mode is adopted, it is essential that the tubers be perfectly dry; otherwise, they will surely rot; and a few rotten potatoes will contaminate a whole mass. The pie, as it is called, consists of a trench, lined and covered with straw; the potatoes in it being piled in the shape of a house roof, to the height of about three feet. The camps ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... a dish placed on the opposite side, to receive the alms of the good Samaritans that passed by, who would give them as wide a berth as possible. The Lepers were not allowed to speak to a stranger, lest they should contaminate him with their breath. To attract attention, they would clash ...
— The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-houses • Robert Charles Hope

... had he heard the merits of the American republic compared with the shortcomings of his own government. When, as happened now and then, he met the American family on the staircase, he drew sharply aside that no touch of republicanism might contaminate ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... him ... like that. It was ... because ... you seemed to think my society contamination ... to an honest boy. I did care for him, but not like that. I cared too much for him to let him marry me ... to contaminate him for life!" ...
— No Hero • E.W. Hornung

... places, where there is no sewage to contaminate the soil, a hard, well-beaten dirt floor is not particularly objectionable, except that it cannot well be cleaned. Boards raised from the ground by small blocks nailed to the under side, and leading to bins, cupboards, and furnace room, ...
— The Complete Home • Various

... wholesome kind. This does not mean that the stories must be about paragons of virtue; the villains of fiction and history have their value in teaching life and character, and we need not fear that they will contaminate the minds of the young, for in most children the instincts may be relied upon to reject the allurement of the base character. But fiction that is false in its sentiment, that does not present truthful pictures of life, is likely to give perverted ideas of human relations ...
— Your Child: Today and Tomorrow • Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg

... it would touch thee to the quick, Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious, And that this body, consecrate to thee, By ruffian lust should be contaminate! Wouldst them not spit at me and spurn at me, And hurl the name of husband in my face, And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot brow, And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring...? My blood is mingled with the crime of ...
— William Shakespeare • John Masefield

... years, in exclusively convict society, where every prevailing sympathy must be tainted with the habits of crime. This island will not be a filter; but the accumulation of moral wretchedness will unavoidably contaminate every mind, and stamp on every character the impression of its peculiar constitution. The sacrifice of this colony will not, therefore, exempt the neighbouring settlements from any portion of the mischief incident to direct transportation. They will receive the prisoners later in life, but deteriorated ...
— The History of Tasmania, Volume I (of 2) • John West

... of March remember: Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice? What, shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers, shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honours For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... friend Jones but seldom, and never alone. This worthy young man, however, professed much regard for him, and as great concern at his misfortune; but cautiously avoided any intimacy, lest, as he frequently hinted, it might contaminate the sobriety of his own character: for which purpose he had constantly in his mouth that proverb in which Solomon speaks against evil communication. Not that he was so bitter as Thwackum; for he ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... seventy thousand souls, and out of these scarcely ten or fifteen thousand do any work, and they are always lean from overwork and are getting weaker every day. The rest become a prey to idleness, avarice, ill-health, lasciviousness, usury and other vices, and contaminate and corrupt very many families by holding them in servitude for their own use, by keeping them in poverty and slavishness, and by imparting to them their own vices. Therefore public slavery ruins them; useful works, in the ...
— Ideal Commonwealths • Various

... know what foreigners are, how they work for evil in places high and low. One cannot take up a daily paper without seeing some exposure of their many-sided viciousness. They contaminate the land with their godless depravity. Nobody can count on immunity. The highest officials in the land, the very Ministers of the Crown, are subjected to their vile disguised attempts at bribery and corruption, no humble peasant girl, no child, is safe from the befoulment of their filthy minds. ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas

... Captured orders on the subject directed the blowing up of houses, wells, and cellars except those held by rear-guard outposts. Farm implements were burned and destroyed. Orders were given to collect filth in the neighborhood of wells to contaminate the water. All the fruit trees with rare exception in the evacuated territory were girdled ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... afraid I should contaminate them. I wouldn't, Wilfrid, I wouldn't. I wouldn't hurt them ...
— The Immortal Moment - The Story of Kitty Tailleur • May Sinclair

... the case in New Zealand and Colorado and Wyoming. It is too soon, perhaps, to look for the effect of suffrage on the female character in Denmark; it may be mixed, because there the case is complicated by the existence of a king, which may contaminate that civic virtue by the honor which is the moving principle in a monarchy. And now," we turned lightly to our visitor, "what is the topic you wish ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells

... impregnated with living and dead germs, dust particles, unburned carbon, etc., but these for the most part are confined to the portion near the earth's surface. In pestilential regions the germs of disease are said sometimes to contaminate the air for ...
— An Introduction to Chemical Science • R.P. Williams

... furnace as that shown is that it supplies radiant heat of a most exhilarating kind, besides a proportion of heated air, and from a fireclay surface, the employment of which renders it absolutely impossible to overheat the air, or to contaminate it by deleterious particles resulting from the decomposition of metal. Moreover, the stoking of this class of furnace requires less arduous attention than an iron stove. Its disadvantage is that, should the temperature of the bath be allowed ...
— The Turkish Bath - Its Design and Construction • Robert Owen Allsop

... inducing him to confess the indwelling of an evil spirit and thus free himself from the great impostor. And if he did not confess then it were better that he be killed, lest the devil through him contaminate all. Why, says Mather, in his Wonders of the Invisible World: "If the devils now can strike the minds of men with any poisons of so fine a composition and operation, that scores of innocent people shall unite in confessions of ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... and the M.P. resumed: 'Now, I know nothing so likely to effect this object, Miss Crumpton, as her mixing constantly in the society of girls of her own age; and, as I know that in your establishment she will meet such as are not likely to contaminate her young mind, I propose to ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... Annie, with that delicate, womanly tact which was one of her most marked characteristics, interrupted him as he was about to say something to the effect, "Miss Walton, since you are so much holier than I, it were better that I should contaminate the air you breathe ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe

... are led to commit a crime by some isolated evil impulse, have a bad influence on the other inmates. Unlike other lunatics, they do not shrink from the company of others, whom they torment with their violence and contaminate with that spirit of restlessness and discontent which distinguished them even before they became insane or criminals. Firm in the belief that they are always being ill treated and insulted, they instil these ideas into their companions and suggest ...
— Criminal Man - According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso • Gina Lombroso-Ferrero

... event to Providence. She sometimes thought Williams knew him, because he once accounted for Barton's secrecy by observing that his pupil might be sprung from parents whom he was ashamed to own. Isabel answered that the faults of the basest could not contaminate so perfect a character. "Would you say so," returned Williams, "if he were the son of Lord Bellingham?" "I know nothing of Lord Bellingham," said she, "except that when my dear father was discomposed, he often called him by very harsh epithets; ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... you, elder sister, had told us that, on this day, and at this very time, there would be sure to come on a visit, the spirit of the younger sister of Chiang Chu. That's the reason why we've been waiting for ever so long; and now why do you, in lieu of her, introduce this vile object to contaminate the confines of pure and ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... a hill to enter another part of the town, when they came upon a kind old Puritan woman, who paused to gaze in compassion on the wayfarers. If others kept off from them as though they were creatures to contaminate by a touch, she seemed to entertain no such fears. Coming ...
— The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story - of Bacon's Rebellion) • John R. Musick

... negative party, insisted strongly that it would be disgraceful for any man who had drunk the glorious, pious, and immortal memory, ever to contaminate his loyal lips with whiskey that had been made a Papish of by the priest. This carried the argument, or otherwise it is hard to say what mischief might have arisen, had they heightened ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... we realize that flies frequent and feed upon the most filthy substances (it may be the excreta of typhoid or dysentery patients or the discharges of one suffering from tuberculosis), and that subsequently they may contaminate human foods with their feet or excreta or vomit spots, the necessity and importance of house-fly ...
— The House Fly and How to Suppress It - U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin No. 1408 • L. O. Howard and F. C. Bishopp

... mother; he only alluded, indirectly but earnestly, to the "step." He disapproved of it altogether, took an unexpectedly prudent, politic view of it. He evidently also believed that she would be dragged down; in other words that she would not be asked out. It was his idea that her mother would contaminate her, so that he should find himself interested in a young person discredited and virtually unmarriageable. All this was more obvious to him than the consideration that a daughter should be merciful. Where was his religion if he understood mercy so little, and where ...
— The Chaperon • Henry James

... malice is not in them, but in those that use them for a malicious purpose. Corrupt mind did never yet understand any word in a wholesome sense; and as such a mind has no profit of seemly words, so such as are scarce seemly may as little avail to contaminate a healthy mind as mud the radiance of the sun, or the deformities of earth the splendours of the heavens. What books, what words, what letters, are more sacred, more excellent, more venerable, than those of Holy Writ? And yet there ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... himself paid for self-denial, labour, or even villany, by a title or a ribbon, sacrifice as much to vanity as the poor wit who is desirous to read you his poem or his play? My second remark was, that vanity is the worst of passions, and more apt to contaminate the mind than any other: for, as selfishness is much more general than we please to allow it, so it is natural to hate and envy those who stand between us and the good we desire. Now, in lust and ambition these are few; and even in avarice we find many ...
— Joseph Andrews, Vol. 2 • Henry Fielding

... 150-166), Jesus is for the first time identified with the Philonian Logos or "Word of God." According to Justin, an impassable abyss exists between the Infinite Deity and the Finite World; the one cannot act upon the other; pure spirit cannot contaminate itself by contact with impure matter. To meet this difficulty, God evolves from himself a secondary God, the Logos,—yet without diminishing himself any more than a flame is diminished when it gives birth to a second flame. Thus generated, like light begotten of light (lumen de lumine), the Logos ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... Border. Nor are there wanting those who yet openly defend the practice, deeming it indeed no sin, but rather a benefit to the water, to take from it some of the superfluous fish, which, say they, would otherwise almost certainly die of disease and contaminate the stream. ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang

... destroyed. In fact, the water which was returned to the pool was better than that which most persons drink. Radiant energy possesses advantages which are unequaled by other bactericidal agents, in that it does not contaminate or change the properties of the water in any way. It does its work of destroying bacteria and leaves the ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh

... sir? Pelagia! Will you insult me? Do you suppose, even if her own pity should so far tempt her to degrade herself, that I could allow her so to contaminate her purity?' ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... Ursula. "Nasty German rubbish. I wonder it didn't contaminate the cellar. Now we ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 23, 1914 • Various

... to contaminate the people and disgrace the country with daily augmented profligacy till a change took place in the government, which took the administration from the multitude and vested it in a few chosen men. The corruptions of the stage ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various

... seen her again? Oh, I see—you've come to ask me what I meant by daring to contaminate an innocent girl by my society?—Well, you can go to Hell, and ...
— The Incomplete Amorist • E. Nesbit

... shall we do? shall we be governed still By this false hand, contaminate with blood? Or else depart and travel forth, until To Euphrates we come, that sacred flood, Where dwells a people void of martial skill, Whose cities rich, whose land is fat and good, Where kingdoms great we may at ease provide, ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... heart has been softened, many a burden made lighter, by a few kind, cheerful words. There are none so low, none so degraded, as to be beneath consideration. To take the hand of the hardest criminal will not contaminate—vice is not contagious. ...
— Bohemian Society • Lydia Leavitt

... said she was very much surprised that Sprague had been there, and that she couldn't understand why he had behaved so strangely. Then Lois said she might as well go fetch Peter from the library, since Sprague was no longer there to contaminate ...
— Murder at Bridge • Anne Austin

... thirty-five days' imprisonment, in mute confinement, to satisfy the majesty of South Carolina, he was released upon the following conditions, and taken to his vessel at early daylight, lest he should see the city or leave something to contaminate the slaves. "Contrary to law." State vs. "Contrary to law." French bark "Senegal," Capt.—For John Paul, Colored Seaman. To ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... princes in Europe the emperor hath travailed most in the cause of religion, yet, haply by some secret judgment of God, he hath not obtained the end. I can well compare him to David, which, though he were a man elect of God, yet for that he was contaminate with blood and wars, he could not build the temple of Jerusalem, but left the finishing thereof to Solomon, who was Rex pacificus. So it may be thought that the appeasing of controversies of religion in Christendom ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude

... that women in politics would lower the standard. Are politicians so pure, politics so exalted, the polls so immaculate, men so moral, that woman would pollute the ballot and contaminate the voters? Would revolvers, bowie-knives, whisky barrels, profane oaths, brutal rowdyism, be the feature of elections if women were present? Woman's presence purifies the atmosphere. Enter any Western hotel and what do you see, General? Sitting around the stove you will see dirty, unwashed-looking ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... speak of the guilt of this community; sometimes in variance with reason and truth. That guilt belongs only to the guilty; it cannot contaminate those who were helpless spectators, or involuntary agents. The doctrine of common responsibility, can only be applicable where all are actors, or one is the representative of all. The colonist may say, "I owe no reparation, for I have done the native no wrong; ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... a thrilling grief Was felt which taught you Heaven alone disposes— God! can you live to see a foreign thief Contaminate its roses? ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... powers, a princess should By that vile place contaminate her blood; My quick return shall to my charmer prove I travel on the ...
— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding

... stability in you. My unsatisfied and restless spirit, harried by a perpetual warfare between attraction and repulsion, eternally and irremediably alone, would find in yours a haven of refuge against the doubts which contaminate every ideal, and weaken the will. There are men more unfortunate, but I doubt if in the whole wide world there was ever one less happy ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio

... konsiligxo. Consume konsumi. Consumer konsumanto. Consummate plenigi. Consummation plenigo. Consumption (phthisis) ftizo. Consumption konsumigxo. Contact kontakto. Contagious komunikebla. Contain enhavi. Contaminate malpurigi. Contemn malestimi. Contemplate rigardadi. Contemporary samtempa. Contempt malestimo. Contemptible malestima. Contend batali. Content kontentigi. Contentedness kontenteco. Contention kontrauxstaro. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... the low lands will float over into and contaminate the pure air of the guarded pleasure gardens, and the evil germs will carry disease, crime and death, no matter how many fountains and white statutes and posies you may set up between. Envy, Discontent and Revenge will break through the walls and meet Oppression, ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley

... here. Contrasted faults through all his manner reign; Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And e'en in penance planning sins anew. 130 All evils here contaminate the mind, That opulence departed leaves behind; For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date, When commerce proudly flourish'd through the state; At her command the palace learn'd to rise, 135 Again the long-fall'n column sought the skies; The canvas glow'd beyond e'en Nature warm, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith

... distention, like as happens in the case of the urinary bladder, more or less complete paralysis is induced. From the prolonged retention of fecal matter accompanying constipation, excrementitious products that ought to be eliminated become absorbed and thereby contaminate the contents of the circulatory system. As the result of this contamination, the secretions become vitiated, and a general disturbance of the conditions of life is produced. The action of the liver becoming deranged, its eliminative office is imperfectly ...
— Intestinal Ills • Alcinous Burton Jamison

... colorless needles melting at 140 deg. C., and, as with all alkaloids, gives a weak basic reaction. It is very soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol, and only very slightly soluble in ether, chloroform or benzol, so that it does not contaminate the caffein in the determination of the latter. Its effects on the body have not been studied, but they are probably not very great, as Polstorff obtained only 0.23 percent from ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... see. You struck me, as you came into the room, as a man who is at peace with himself." Lord Alberan snorted, and was about to speak, but Sir Robert held up his hand. "Tell me, Dr. Harden, did you actually contaminate the water ...
— The Blue Germ • Martin Swayne

... eyes filled with tears. "However, it is your father we are talking of, and there is no commandment telling me to honour him. I say I hate him and he hates me, and that's why he is sending you away. Well, I hope you won't find anyone to contaminate ...
— Love Eternal • H. Rider Haggard

... quite sure that we shall be gone within three days,—or four at the furthest. Indeed, I will pledge myself not to remain longer than that,—even though I should have to go to the poor-house. Neither I nor my sister will stay in any family,—to contaminate it. Come, Nora." And so speaking she sailed out of the room, and her ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope

... home cultivate reflection and stimulate to virtue. For this reason, women are more pious than men; and for this reason, too, they are more eminent in purity. Contact with the domestic circle does not contaminate or corrupt, as the baser contact with the world is ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks



Words linked to "Contaminate" :   contamination, modify, dirty, infect, grime, contaminative, begrime, contaminant, colly, soil, bemire, decontaminate, taint, change



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com