From Saturday's Merriam Webster Word of the Day:
defile \dih-FYLE or DEE-fyle\ (verb)
: to march off in a line
Example sentence:
The king nodded with approval as his soldiers defiled past
him.
Did you know?
You probably know the "defile" that is a verb meaning "to
make unclean or impure," but did you also know that today's
word is a verb that is entirely unrelated to the more familiar
"defile"? The "defile" that means "contaminate" dates to the
14th century and is derived from the Old French verb "defouler,"
meaning "to trample on, mistreat." Today's featured word, on the
other hand, arrived in English in the early 18th century. It's
also from French, but it's derived from the verb "defiler,"
formed by combining "de-" with "filer" ("to move in a column").
"Defiler" is also the source of the English noun "defile," which
means "a narrow passage or gorge."
