soiled

1. 1
   adjectivefiguratively

   Morally tainted or disgraced; stripped of purity, honor, or good reputation as though stained.

   Like a mirror that keeps a smudge no polishing can fully remove.

   The scandal left her once-spotless legacy soiled in the eyes of the public.

   He spent his last years trying to redeem a soiled conscience.

   Similartarnished, tainted, sullied, stained

   Oppositeunblemished, untarnished, spotless, pure

   Note

   The moral stain rides on a literal one. The same adjective describes linen marked by dirt and a reputation marked by disgrace, and the figurative use only works because the physical one is so familiar. As an adjective it compares with more and most: a more soiled collar, the most soiled record in the department.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of soil.

   Heavy rain soiled the freshly laid carpet within minutes.

   The workers soiled their gloves handling the greasy machinery.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It is the simple past (the rain soiled the carpet) and also the participle after have or be (the carpet has been soiled, was soiled). The verb behind it works with or without an object, so things soil and people soil them. It also stretches to disgrace, as in soiled his good name. Used reflexively, as in he soiled himself, it means accidental defecation while clothed.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of a patient or child, having stool on the body or clothing after a bowel movement.

   The night shift noted that the elderly resident was soiled again before dawn.

   Nursery workers changed the soiled infant and recorded the time.

   Similardirty

   Oppositeclean

   Note

   A care-record word. Nurses, carers and nursery staff note that a patient or infant is soiled, so the adjective applies to the person and not just the bedding or clothes. It is the adjective partner of the reflexive verb in he soiled himself. In clinical notes it usually flags a need for cleaning, a change of garments, or a review of continence care.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having soil of a specific or particular type.

   The clay-soiled fields drained poorly after each heavy rain.

   Sandy-soiled plots near the coast suit root vegetables better than wheat.

   Note

   Gardeners and farmers use it to classify land by what it is made of, and it almost always closes a compound naming the soil: clay-soiled, sandy-soiled, light-soiled, deep-soiled. Before a noun the compound takes a hyphen. Standing alone, the word is heard as the "dirty" meaning, so the compound is what signals that land is being described rather than criticized.

5. 5
   adjective

   Fed or nourished with green fodder.

   Steers soiled on green corn through August put on weight faster than those left on dry pasture.

   Their dairy cows were soiled in the stalls rather than turned out to graze.

   Note

   A stock-keeper's term from the practice called soiling. Green crops such as clover or rye are cut and carried to animals kept in stalls or yards, instead of the animals being turned out to graze. Like the soil-type sense, it is easily misread as dirt, so mentioning the feed or the stalls nearby keeps the farming meaning clear.

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