DEFAME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does defame mean? 

• DEFAME (verb)
  The verb DEFAME has 1 sense:

1. charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone

  Familiarity information: DEFAME used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEFAME (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they defame    ... he / she / it defames   
Past simple: defamed   
Past participle: defamed   
-ing form: defaming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

asperse; besmirch; calumniate; defame; denigrate; slander; smear; smirch; sully

Context example:

The article in the paper sullied my reputation

Hypernyms (to "defame" is one way to...):

accuse; charge (blame for, make a claim of wrongdoing or misbehavior against)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "defame"):

assassinate (destroy or damage seriously, as of someone's reputation)

libel (print slanderous statements against)

badmouth; drag through the mud; malign; traduce (speak unfavorably about)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

defamation (an abusive attack on a person's character or good name)

defamation (a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions)

defamatory ((used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign)

defamer (one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel)

 Context examples 

Thus are we ministers of God's own wish: that the world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters, whose very existence would defame Him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You are a precious set of people, ain't you? said Uriah, in the same low voice, and breaking out into a clammy heat, which he wiped from his forehead, with his long lean hand, to buy over my clerk, who is the very scum of society,—as you yourself were, Copperfield, you know it, before anyone had charity on you,—to defame me with his lies?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)