▪ I. contaminate, ppl. a. arch.
(kənˈtæmɪnət)
[ad. L. contāmināt-us, pa. pple. of contāmināre: see next.]
Contaminated, defiled, sullied. (Formerly construed as pa. pple.)
| 1552 Latimer Serm. St. Stephen's Day Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 329 Shewing that we are all contaminate. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 135 Shouldst thou but heare..that this body consecrate to thee, By Ruffian Lust should be contaminate? 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God i. viii. (1620) 13 Their filthy and contaminate liues. 1788 Sir W. Young in Dk. Buckhm. Crt. & Cabinets Geo. III (1853) I. 391 Declining Lady Tyrconnel's visits, as a Lady whose character is contaminate! 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. x. 375 Filthy rags of speech..Tatters all too contaminate for use. |
▪ II. contaminate, v.
(kənˈtæmɪneɪt)
[f. L. contāmināt- ppl. stem of contāmināre to bring into contact, mingle, corrupt, defile, f. contāmen, -tāmin- (for contagmen) contact, infection, pollution, f. con- + tag- stem of tangĕre to touch.]
a. trans. To render impure by contact or mixture; to corrupt, defile, pollute, sully, taint, infect.
| 1526 Tonstall Proclam. 23 Oct. in Foxe, Which truly..wyll contaminate and infect the flock..with most deadly poyson and heresie. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iv. iii. 24 Shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes? 1671 J. Webster Metallogr. viii. 124 Imperfect Metals infected or contaminated with terrestrial fœculency. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 131 All evils here contaminate the mind. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 247 Air that is contaminated by respiration. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 383 The foreign substances, with which the indigo is always contaminated. 1877 Farrar Days of Youth xv. 141 Physical evil may crush, but moral evil can alone contaminate. |
b. spec. (a) to subject to (the risk of) contamination by radioactivity; (b) to infect with poison gas; (c) Textual Criticism, to subject to contamination (see contamination 1 e). Cf. decontaminate v.
| 1926 R. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity 61 All objects in the neighbourhood of strong polonium preparations become contaminated. 1938 Protection of Home against Air Raids (H.M.S.O.) 25 Mustard gas..also ‘contaminates’ clothing, or other objects exposed to it, making them dangerous to have near you or to touch until they have been ‘decontaminated’. 1942 R. W. Chapman in Essays & Studies XXVII. 43 A manuscript B, copied from A, may have been corrected or ‘contaminated’..by reference to a third manuscript C. 1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited 16 ‘We are being sprayed with liquid mustard-gas,’ I said... There were no casualties and nothing had been contaminated. 1949 Schweitzer & Whitney Radioactive Tracer Technique i. 5 The student..may easily get his hands contaminated and from this source may contaminate the laboratory. |