calumniate

present singular third person calumniates · participle present calumniating · participle past calumniated · past calumniated

1. transitiveTo make hurtful untrue comments about.

   Hatred unto the truth did always falsely report and calumniate all godly men's doings.

   a. 1555, John Hooper, A Brief Treatise respecting Judge Hales

   3 more examples

   I missed her when she was not on the stage, in spite of the absorbing interest of that most calumniated and ill-used person, the Jew. (Speaking of Fanny Kemble as Portia)

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 229

   There are adherents of each of the four French parties—Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and Republicans—in this little mountain-town; and they all hate, loathe, decry, and calumniate each other.

   1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, “chapter 1”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

   During the period of Pergamos great experiments were gone through by the Church which saw a false church appear near her, the latter was even noticeable in th periods of Ephesus and Smyrna. The synagogue of Satan, the false church when it appeared, began to calumniate the true Church terribly; the latter has always been disowned by those who left her in order to become faithless disciples, also by false brethren and by the world.

   1922, “The Epoch of Pergamos.”, in The Divine Revelation the Seven Spirits of God, 1st edition, volume I (Theology), Geneva, page 94

   Synonyms: diss, slander

2. transitiveTo levy a false charge against, especially of a vague offense, with the intent to damage someone's reputation or standing.

   Synonyms: diss, slander, traduce, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul