pollution

plural pollutions

1. uncountableusuallyPhysical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.First known use 18th c.

   Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.

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   If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the[…]hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion

   Schools across the country are moving to ban the school run amid growing concern about the devastating impact of air pollution on young people’s health.

   2018 July 13, Matthew Taylor, The Guardian

   Pollution now kills three times as many people worldwide as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

   2019, George Monbiot, “Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out”, in Guardian.

   "Flying only looks like a bargain because the cost of pollution is so cheap."

   2023 August 9, “Network News: Network rail under fire for spending thousands of pounds on flights”, in RAIL, number 989, page 15

   Synonyms: defedation, defilement, soilage, adulteration, contamination, defedation, defilement, sophistication · Antonyms: conservation

2. uncountableusuallySomething that pollutes; a pollutant.First known use 17th c.

   Synonyms: adulterant, contaminant, contamination, impurity, sophisticant, adulterant, adulterator, contaminant

3. archaicuncountableusuallyThe desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation.First known use 14th c.

   Men who attend the Altar, and should most / Endevor Peace: thir strife pollution brings / Upon the Temple it self […].

   1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

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   [T]he most gallant knights that ever wielded sword wasted their lives away in a struggle to seize it and hold it sacred from infidel pollution.

   1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: debasement, debauchment, perversion, abasement, adulteration, corruption, debasement, debauchment · Antonyms: purity

4. archaicuncountableusuallyThe ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission.First known use 14th c.

   According to Billuart and other theologians, pollution in sleep is not sin, unless voluntarily caused; if, however, it begins in sleep, and is completed in the half-waking state, with a sense of pleasure, it is a venial sin.

   1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, volume 1

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   When occasioned by a voluntary act it is called, simply, Pollution or Masturbation (q.v.); when excited, during sleep, by lascivious dreams, it takes the name Noctur'nal pollution, Exoneiro'sis, Oneirog'mos, Oneirog'onos, Gonorrhœ'a dormien'tium, G. oneirog'onos, G. Vera, G. libidino'sa, Proflu'vium Sem'inis, Spermatorrhœ'a, Paronir'ia salax, Night pollution.

   1839, Robley Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, Blanchard, page 492

5. uncountableusuallyMoral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.First known use 15th c.

   She condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: baseness, perversion, baseness, corruption, defilement, degeneracy, degradation, depravation