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Vitiate vs Replace - What's the difference?

vitiate | replace |

In transitive terms the difference between vitiate and replace

is that vitiate is to make something ineffective, to invalidate while replace is to demolish a building and build an updated form of that building in its place.

vitiate

English

Verb

(vitiat)
  • to spoil, make faulty; to reduce the value, quality, or effectiveness of something
  • *1851 ,
  • There was excellent blood in his veins—royal stuff; though sadly vitiated , I fear, by the cannibal propensity he nourished in his untutored youth.
  • * 1997': ‘Mr Rose,’ says the Physician, ‘this man was brought to us from Russia. Precisely such a case of '''vitiated judgment as I describe at length in my Treatise on Madness. Mayhap you have read it?’ — Andrew Miller, ''Ingenious Pain
  • to debase or morally corrupt
  • *1890 , Leo Tolstoy,
  • *:The robber does not intentionally vitiate people, but the governments, to accomplish their ends, vitiate whole generations from childhood to manhood with false religions and patriotic instruction.
  • (archaic) to violate, to rape
  • * 1965': ‘Crush the cockatrice,’ he groaned, from his death-cell. ‘I am dead in law’ – but of the girl he denied that he had ‘attempted to '''vitiate her at Nine years old’; for ‘upon the word of a dying man, both her Eyes did see, and her Hands did act in all that was done’. — John Fowles, ''The Magus
  • to make something ineffective, to invalidate
  • *{{quote-book
  • , author = , title = , year = 1734 , page = 78 , passage = ...all the hinges of the animal frame are subverted, every animal function is vitiated ; the carcass retains but just life enough to make it capable of suffering. }}

    replace

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Verb

    (replac)
  • To restore to a former place, position, condition, or the like.
  • When you've finished using the telephone, please replace the handset.
    The earl...was replaced in his government. — .
  • To refund; to repay; to restore; as, to replace a sum of money borrowed.
  • You can take what you need from the petty cash, but you must replace it tomorrow morning.
  • To supply or substitute an equivalent for.
  • I replaced my car with a newer model.
    The batteries were dead so I replaced them
  • * '>citation
  • Next Wednesday, four women and 15 men on the Crown Nominations Commission will gather for two days of prayer and horsetrading to replace Rowan Williams as archbishop of Canterbury.
  • To take the place of; to supply the want of; to fulfill the end or office of.
  • This security pass replaces the one you were given earlier.
    This duty of right intention does not replace or supersede the duty of consideration. — .
  • To demolish a building and build an updated form of that building in its place.
  • (rare) To place again.
  • (rare) To put in a new or different place.
  • Usage notes

    The propriety of the use of "replace" instead of "displace", "supersede", or "take the place of", as in the fourth definition, has been disputed on account of etymological discrepancy, but is standard English and universally accepted.

    Derived terms

    * replaceable * replacement

    Anagrams

    * English transitive verbs ----