contaminate
part of speech
verb (contaminate, contaminates, contaminated, contaminating)
meaning for a pupil
1) To make something dirty, impure or harmful by adding something bad to it, such as germs, poison or chemicals. tree →
2) (science) To spoil an experiment or sample by letting something unwanted get in. tree →
3) To have a bad influence on something (contaminate someone's thinking). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, cooking and food-safety lessons: do not let raw meat contaminate other food — use separate boards and wash your hands. In environment lessons, oil spills and sewage contaminate rivers and seas. In experiments, dirty equipment can contaminate results. It tells the reader something clean has been spoiled.
examples
- Raw chicken can contaminate other food with bacteria. tree →
- Wash your hands so you don't contaminate the food. tree →
- An oil spill contaminated the beach. tree →
- Sewage contaminated the river after the storm. tree →
- Don't touch the sample or you'll contaminate it. tree →
- Chemicals from the old factory contaminated the soil. tree →
note
Regular verb: contaminated, contaminating. Food safety: keep raw meat away from ready-to-eat food, use separate chopping boards, and wash hands after touching raw meat. Opposite: purify, decontaminate.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «contaminate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.