libel

plural libels

1. countableA written or pictorial false statement which unjustly seeks to damage someone's reputation.
2. uncountableThe act or tort of displaying such a statement publicly.
3. countableAny defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
4. countablelawA written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of their cause of action, and of the relief they seek.

   1 more example

   These provisions of law being in force, the steamer Rio Grande, owned, as was alleged, by persons in Mexico, being in the port of Mobile, in the Southern District of Alabama, certain materialmen, on the 26th of November, 1867, filed separate libels against her in the district court for the said district.

   1873, United States Supreme Court, The Rio Grande, 86 U.S. 178,179

5. countableA brief writing of any kind, especially a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.

   a libel of forsaking [divorcement]

present singular third person libels · US participle present libeling · UK participle present libelling · US participle past libeled · US past libeled · UK participle past libelled · UK past libelled

1. transitivelawTo defame (someone), especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel.

   He libelled her when he published that.

   1 more example

   But vvhat ſo pure, vvhich envious tongues vvill ſpare? / Some vvicked vvits have libell'd all the fair.

   1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 203

   Synonyms: assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul, belibel, besmirch, besmear

2. transitivelawTo proceed against (goods, a ship, etc.) by filing a legal claim.