VITIATE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Vitiate

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verb

Vitiate v. t. (past & past part. vitiated; pres. part. vitiating) (Written also viciate)

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." "Without care it may be used to vitiate our minds." "This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers."

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.

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Etymology of 'Vitiate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vitiate" Quotes from Famous Books

... accuracy. A variation of one eighth of an inch in development will change the destiny of the individual, and incorrect conceptions of the growth of the brain and the natural irregularities of the cranium would vitiate the conclusions of the observers. A somewhat famous but unscientific practitioner of phrenology gave a good illustration of this by mistaking a rugged development of the lambdoid suture for an enormous organ of combativeness, and ascribing to the gentleman a terrific, pugnacious energy ...

— Buchanan's Journal of Man, February 1887 - Volume 1, Number 1 • Various

... effluence of that heav'n, which thou, Thyself a costly jewel, dost inlay! Therefore I pray the Sovran Mind, from whom Thy motion and thy virtue are begun, That he would look from whence the fog doth rise, To vitiate thy beam: so that once more He may put forth his hand 'gainst such, as drive Their traffic in that sanctuary, whose walls With miracles and martyrdoms were built. Ye host of heaven! whose glory I survey l O beg ye grace for those, that are ...

— The Divine Comedy • Dante

... of the law is positive, that the sheriff shall put all the enclosures into one box. How far his inattention or misconduct in this particular shall be deemed to vitiate the ballots of a county, appears to be left to the judgment of the canvassers. Were the ballots of this county subject to no other exception than that stated in the third and fourth questions, I should incline to think it one of those cases in which the discretion of ...

— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... In those mines, such as at the Witwatersrand, where there is a fairly sound assurance of definite life, it is possible to calculate at once the size of plant which by saving of "fixed charges" will be eventually the most economical, but even here the other limitations step in to vitiate such policy of management,—chiefly the limitation through ...

— Principles of Mining - Valuation, Organization and Administration • Herbert C. Hoover

... and Glump himself was,—nobody knew where Glump was, but strange whispers respecting Glump were floating about the borough. Trigger was disposed to believe that they, on their side, could prove that Glump had really been employed by Westmacott's people to vitiate the election. He was quite sure that nothing could connect Glump with him as an agent on behalf of Griffenbottom and Underwood. So Mr. Trigger asserted with the greatest confidence; but what was in the bottom of Mr. Trigger's mind on this subject no one pretended to know. As for Glump ...

— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

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