Bedirty

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Cause something to become unclean or soiled
2. To soil an object or surface, making it dirty
3. Render no longer clean by covering or staining with dirt

Etymology: "Bedirty" is a straightforward formation: the prefix "be-" attached to the adjective "dirty." In Old English, "be-" could turn a noun or adjective into a verb meaning to cover or affect something with the quality named by the base word, so "bedirty" means to make something thoroughly dirty, much as "becloud" means to cover with clouds. "Dirty" itself came into English from Middle English "drite" (excrement), a word of Scandinavian origin, which means the adjective's sense has roughly a physical, messy core. Because "bedirty" is built from a productive pattern rather than coined as a single invention, the verb is best understood as a transparent compound. Its meaning follows directly from its parts: "be-" marks the action of applying something to a surface, and "dirty" supplies the result.

Synonyms: soil, stain, defile, dirty, smirch

Antonyms: clean, purify, sanitize, wash, clarify