scandal

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

• noun A publicized incident that brings about disgrace or offends the moral sensibilities of society.
• noun A person, thing, or circumstance that causes or ought to cause disgrace or outrage.
• noun Damage to reputation or character caused by public disclosure of immoral or grossly improper behavior; disgrace.
• noun Talk that is damaging to one's character; malicious gossip.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Offense caused by faults or misdeeds; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is considered wrong; opprobrium; shame; disgrace.
• noun Reproachful aspersion; defamatory speech or report; something uttered which is injurious to reputation; defamatory talk; malicious gossip.
• noun In law: A report, rumor, or action whereby one is affronted in public.
• noun An irrelevant and defamatory or indecent statement introduced into a pleading or proceeding; any allegation or statement which is unbecoming the dignity of the court to hear, or is contrary to good manners, or which unnecessarily either charges a person with a crime or bears cruelly on his moral character.
• noun That which causes scandal or gives offense; an action or circumstance that brings public disgrace to the persons involved, or offends public morals.
• noun Synonyms Discredit, disrepute, dishonor.
• noun Backbiting, slander, calumny, detraction.
• To throw scandal on; defame; asperse; traduce.
• To scandalize; offend; shock.

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

• transitive verb rare To treat opprobriously; to defame; to asperse; to traduce; to slander.
• transitive verb obsolete To scandalize; to offend.
• noun Offense caused or experienced; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is regarded as wrong, criminal, heinous, or flagrant: opprobrium or disgrace.
• noun Reproachful aspersion; opprobrious censure; defamatory talk, uttered heedlessly or maliciously.
• noun (Equity) Anything alleged in pleading which is impertinent, and is reproachful to any person, or which derogates from the dignity of the court, or is contrary to good manners.

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

• noun An incident or event that disgraces or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved.
• noun Damage to one's reputation.
• noun Widespread moral outrage, indignation, as over an offence to decency.
• noun theology Religious discredit; an act or behaviour which brings a religion into discredit.
• noun theology Something which hinders acceptance of religious ideas or behaviour; a stumbling-block or offense.
• noun Defamatory talk; gossip, slander.
• verb obsolete To treat opprobriously; to defame; to slander.
• verb obsolete To scandalize; to offend.

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

• noun a disgraceful event
• noun disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people