polluted

[ puh-loo-tid ]

adjective

1. made unclean or impure; contaminated; tainted:

   swimming in polluted waters.

2. Slang. drunk ( def 1 ).

polluted

/ pəˈluːtɪd /

adjective

1. made unclean or impure; contaminated
2. slang.
   intoxicated; drunk

Other Words From

• pol·luted·ness noun
• unpol·luted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of polluted¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; pollute, -ed ²

Example Sentences

There wasn’t a strong connection between the age of a station and how polluted it was.

From Popular-Science

If it could be successfully recycled one day, that same polluted source would be valuable to a region like ours that’s prone to drought.

From Voice of San Diego

What makes this ever more complicated is the fact that because the water gets polluted in Mexico, the United States doesn’t know what’s in it.

From Voice of San Diego

A remote mountain that some consider pristine is polluted with microplastics, she says.

From Science News For Students

The state forester, Peter Daugherty, has denied any direct connection exists between clear-cutting and polluted drinking water.

From ProPublica

In fact, commercial fishing has been suspended entirely because the lake is considered polluted.

From The Daily Beast

Instead, he wanted viewers to grasp that “this spring from which Mother Courage drank death was a polluted one.”

From The Daily Beast

Wetlands protected under the “Clean Water Act of 1972” are being polluted with birch beer precursor chemicals.

From The Daily Beast

We know exactly which leaking tank polluted drinking water in southern West Virginia earlier this year.

From The Daily Beast

“Sometimes I worry what these polluted bodies are doing to the environment, too,” he says.

From The Daily Beast

Her prophets are senseless, men without faith: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have acted unjustly against the law.

From Project Gutenberg

You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: Wherein have we polluted thee?

From Project Gutenberg

Before the door of the house were set branches of pine or cypress as a warning that the house was polluted by death.

From Project Gutenberg

Let it not be polluted with anything dead or impure, that your victuals, boiled in pure water, may be healthy.

From Project Gutenberg

Special provision is now made for the using of water that is polluted.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• awful
• dirty
• fierce
• horrible
• icky
• murderous
• noxious
• obnoxious
• ornery
• outrageous
• rough
• tough
• unpleasant
• vile
• vulgar