defame
/dɪˈfeɪm/ verb, noun, adjective
Forms defames defaming defamed
- verb To disgrace; to bring into disrepute.
- verb (now chiefly historical) To charge; to accuse (someone) of an offence. “Rebecca is […] defamed of sorcery practised on the person of a noble knight.”
- verb To harm or diminish the reputation of; to disparage. “to defame somebody”
- noun (now rare, archaic) Disgrace, dishonour.
- noun (now rare or nonstandard) Defamation; slander, libel.
- adjective (heraldry) Synonym of defamed.
Synonyms
discredit dishonour humiliate abase bring down to size cut down to size debase degrade demean demote depress disgrace disparage downgrade embase give a bad name humble knock down to size put someone in their place reduce slander smirch asperse denigrate calumniate smear sully besmirch
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English defamen, from Anglo-Norman defamer (verb), defame (noun), and its source, Latin diffāmō, from fāma (“fame; rumour; reputation”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To harm or destroy the good fame or reputation of; to disgrace; especially, to speak evil of maliciously; to dishonor by slanderous reports; to calumniate; to asperse.
- verb To render infamous; to bring into disrepute.
- noun Dishonor. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Etymology [OE. defamen, diffamen, from F. diffamer, or OF. perh. defamer, fr. L. diffamare (cf. defamatus infamous); dis- (in this word confused with de) + fama a report. See Fame.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “defame”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details