vitiate

verb

vi·​ti·​ate ˈvi-shē-ˌāt How to pronounce vitiate (audio)
vitiated; vitiating

transitive verb

1
: to make faulty or defective : impair
the comic impact is vitiated by obvious hasteWilliam Styron
2
: to debase in moral or aesthetic status
a mind vitiated by prejudice
3
: to make ineffective
fraud vitiates a contract
vitiation noun
vitiator noun

Did you know?

Here's one for word puzzle lovers—and anyone allured by alliteration. The sentence "Vivian vituperated the vicious villain for valuing vice over virtue" contains three words that derive from the same Latin source as vitiate. Can you identify all three? If you picked vituperate (a verb meaning "to scold"), vicious, and vice, your puzzle prowess is beyond reproach. Like vitiate, all three descend from the Latin noun vitium, meaning "fault" or "vice."

Choose the Right Synonym for vitiate

debase, vitiate, deprave, corrupt, debauch, pervert mean to cause deterioration or lowering in quality or character.

debase implies a loss of position, worth, value, or dignity.

commercialism has debased the holiday

vitiate implies a destruction of purity, validity, or effectiveness by allowing entrance of a fault or defect.

a foreign policy vitiated by partisanship

deprave implies moral deterioration by evil thoughts or influences.

the claim that society is depraved by pornography

corrupt implies loss of soundness, purity, or integrity.

the belief that bureaucratese corrupts the language

debauch implies a debasing through sensual indulgence.

the long stay on a tropical isle had debauched the ship's crew

pervert implies a twisting or distorting from what is natural or normal.

perverted the original goals of the institute

Examples of vitiate in a Sentence

The impact of the film was vitiated by poor acting. believed that luxury vitiates even the most principled person
Recent Examples on the Web Yet, the Biden Justice Department’s infighting and foot-dragging caused the statute of limitations for the 2014 and 2015 tax years to lapse, vitiating some of the investigation’s key allegations. The Editors, National Review, 21 July 2023 And, especially relevant to Edelman in this case: Is it vitiated by bad motives? Jesse Green, New York Times, 27 June 2023 His arguments were later challenged by critics who argued that new information and communication technologies vitiated the advantages of corporate size and hierarchical control. Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022 Nothing is said about the former president himself, but applying these general criminal statutes to him based on his mere possession of records would vitiate the entire carefully balanced PRA statutory scheme. David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, WSJ, 22 Aug. 2022 The vertiginous composition incorporates tropes of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, which, having become second nature to Howe, hardly vitiate the intensity of this particular religious rapture. Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 4 July 2022 The practical effect of this opinion is to vitiate risk pools as a method for small captive insurance companies to meet the risk distribution requirements for tax purposes. Jay Adkisson, Forbes, 13 May 2022 The conspiracy argument is an attempt to vitiate Eastman's attorney-client privilege defense. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 4 Mar. 2022 Failure to do that can potentially vitiate or at least impair coverage. Joshua Stein, Forbes, 9 Nov. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vitiate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Latin vitiatus, past participle of vitiare, from vitium fault, vice

First Known Use

1534, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of vitiate was in 1534

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Dictionary Entries Near vitiate

Cite this Entry

“Vitiate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vitiate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

vitiate

verb
vi·​ti·​ate ˈvish-ē-ˌāt How to pronounce vitiate (audio)
vitiated; vitiating
1
: to harm the quality of : spoil
grammatical errors vitiated the impact of her writing
2
: to destroy the effect or force of
fraud vitiates a contract
vitiation noun

Legal Definition

vitiate

transitive verb
vi·​ti·​ate ˈvi-shē-ˌāt How to pronounce vitiate (audio)
vitiated; vitiating
: to make ineffective
fraud vitiates a contract

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