Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Very bad reputation; notoriety.
  • noun The condition of being infamous; disgrace.
  • noun An evil or criminal act that is publicly known.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Evil fame; public reproach or disgrace; scandalous repute.
  • noun Infamous character; disgracefulness; scandalousness; extreme baseness or vileness: as, the infamy of an action.
  • noun In law, the public disgrace or loss of character incurred by conviction of an infamous offense. See infamous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Total loss of reputation; public disgrace; dishonor; ignominy; indignity.
  • noun A quality which exposes to disgrace; extreme baseness or vileness.
  • noun (Law) That loss of character, or public disgrace, which a convict incurs, and by which he is at common law rendered incompetent as a witness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being infamous.
  • noun A reputation as being evil.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun evil fame or public reputation
  • noun a state of extreme dishonor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English infamie, dishonor, from Old French, from Latin īnfāmia, from īnfāmis, infamous; see infamous.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin īnfāmia ("infamy"), from īnfāmis ("infamous"), from in- ("not") + fāma ("fame, renown").

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Examples

Comments

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  • You can hear the "Date of Infamy" speech given by FDR on American Rhetoric

    December 7, 2006

  • The unit of currency in the City of Villains MMORPG.

    September 7, 2008

  • Since nobody has quoted it yet: 'Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me...'

    September 7, 2008