Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To attack the reputation of (a person or thing) with strong or abusive criticism. synonym: malign.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make vile; debase; degrade.
- To attempt to degrade by slander; defame; traduce; calumniate.
- To treat as worthless, vile, or of no account.
- Synonyms Asperse, Defame, Calumniate, etc. (see
asperse ), revile, abuse. - To utter slander; be guilty of defamation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb rare To make vile; to debase; to degrade; to disgrace.
- transitive verb To degrade or debase by report; to defame; to traduce; to calumniate.
- transitive verb obsolete To treat as vile; to despise.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To say
defamatory things about someone or something. - verb transitive To
belittle through speech; toput down .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb spread negative information about
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Ellison responded by airing his broad concern over radicalization, before arguing that King's choice to aggressively target only Muslims would "vilify" the community.
Keith Ellison To Peter King: Muslim 'Radicalization' Probe Will 'Vilify' Community (VIDEO) The Huffington Post 2010
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Ellison responded by airing his broad concern over radicalization, before arguing that King's choice to aggressively target only Muslims would "vilify" the community.
Keith Ellison To Peter King: Muslim 'Radicalization' Probe Will 'Vilify' Community (VIDEO) The Huffington Post 2010
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*Shirley Payne, assistant vice president for information security, policy and records, removed unconstitutional language from a policy prohibiting Internet messages that "vilify" others and mailing list messages that are "inappropriate."
University of Virginia reforms speech code Valerie Strauss 2010
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However, hardly anyone has seriously attempted to "vilify" them since the fact of the matter is simple: one lost and the other is losing.
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Obama Is In So sharp was his critique of insurers that one attendee who identified himself as an industry executive asked him why he chose to "vilify" a business that has contributed ideas to the debate.
As Obama Goes on the Attack, a Blue Dog Takes Some Heat 2009
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If Steyn uses those true facts to "vilify" someone -- say, radical Muslim terrrorists -- he's still guilty of a human rights crime.
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If Steyn uses those true facts to "vilify" someone -- say, radical Muslim terrrorists -- he's still guilty of a human rights crime.
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I'm somewhat confused -- you seem to be saying that speaking out on behalf of the oppressed doesn't justify hate speech, yet you won't "vilify" Dworkin is it "vilification" to describe her as the hate-speech purveyor she was? because she spoke out for the oppressed.
Andrea Dworkin has died. Ann Althouse 2005
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And I add, had you joined herewith, such as vilify and trample upon the blood of the Lord Jesus, preferring the snivel of their own brains before him, you had herein but drawn your own picture, and given your reader an emblem of yourself.
Works of John Bunyan — Volume 02 John Bunyan 1658
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A spokesman for Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend has lashed out at the actor's legal team - accusing his lawyers of creating false rumours about the Russian singer in order to "vilify" her during the pair's custody battle.
Ottawa Sun 2010
bilby commented on the word vilify
"Halliburton has been doing work in war zones since the early 1960s, when it acquired the construction company Brown & Root and was tasked by the Pentagon with building the infrastructure for the Vietnam War. Back in those days, it was vilified as 'Burn & Loot'."
- Pratap Chatterjee, Is Halliburton Forgiven and Forgotten?, tomdispatch.com, 31 May 2009.
June 1, 2009
mohitanand commented on the word vilify
verb: spread negative information about
Todd was noble after the divorce, choosing to say only complimentary things about Barbara, but Barbara did not hesitate to vilify Todd.
October 19, 2016