Meaning of Defile | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An act of defilading a fortress or other place, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.
   also, figuratively, rare
2. A narrow passage or way (originally (military), one which soldiers could only march through in a single file or line), especially a narrow gorge or pass between mountains.
   also, figuratively
3. An act of marching in files or lines.
   also, figuratively
4. A single file of soldiers; (by extension) any single file.
   also, figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“VVe had one dangerous Place⟳ to paſs, vvhich our Guide⟳ told us, if there vvere any more VVolves in the Country, vve ſhould find⟳ them there; and this vvas in a ſmall Plain, ſurrounded vvith VVoods on every Side, and a long narrovv Defile or Lane, vvhich vve vvere to paſs to get⟳ through the VVood, and then vve ſhould come⟳ to the Village vvhere vve vvere to lodge.”

“Conſtantine had taken poſt in a defile about half a mile in breadth, between a ſteep hill and a deep moraſs, and in that ſituation he ſteadily expected and repulſed the firſt attack of the enemy.”

“[…] I roam / By Thrasimene's lake, in the defiles / Fatal to Roman rashness, more at home; […]”

“[T]hese granite hills, thousands of feet high, were impracticable for heavy troops: the passes through them being formidable defiles, very costly to assault or cover⟳.”

“All three parallel valleys of the Llynvi, Garw and Ogmore are much the same in physical character: the lower reaches are wooded and not unattractive, but as the railway climbs on ever-steepening grades, the hills on either hand grow⟳ barer and closer together, while in all respects the scene becomes more sombre, with the terraced, slate-roofed colliery towns and the road, railway and river all struggling for space in the narrowing defiles.”

“The next morning the enemy were on the march⟳ before him, seized the defiles, blocked the fords of the rivers, destroyed the bridges, and sent out cavalry to patrol the open⟳ ground, so as to oppose⟳ the Athenians at every step as they retreated.”

“On the final stages of the run⟳ from Inverness Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45066 winds its train⟳ through narrow rock defiles alongside Loch Carron at the approach⟳ to Kyle of Lochalsh.”

“"For the first time in 125 years a powerful enemy was now established across the narrow waters of the English Channel. ... Many people must have⟳ been bewildered by the innumerable activities all around them. They could understand⟳ the necessity for wiring and mining the beaches, the anti-tank obstacles at the defiles, the concrete pillboxes at the cross-roads, the intrusions into their houses to fill⟳ an attic with sandbags, on to their golf-courses or most fertile fields and gardens to burrow out some wide anti-tank ditch." So wrote Winston Churchill in Their Finest Hour, published in 1949.”

CEFR level