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Definition of "contaminate" [con•tam•i•nate]

  • To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. (verb-transitive)
  • To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. (verb-transitive)
  • One that contaminates; a contaminant. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "contaminate" in a sentence
  • "As the cook cut the melons s/he transferred the contaminate from the outside of the fruit to the inside."
  • "David Cameron's favourite thinktank, Policy Exchange, published a book-length condemnation which claims that The Spirit Level's authors had produced a shabby, shallow work which threatened to "contaminate" our presumably honest political debate, as if it were an oil slick heading towards a pristine coast."
  • "The authorities had been allowed to "contaminate" the results,"