DETRACTOR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does detractor mean? 

• DETRACTOR (noun)
  The noun DETRACTOR has 1 sense:

1. one who disparages or belittles the worth of something

  Familiarity information: DETRACTOR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETRACTOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One who disparages or belittles the worth of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

depreciator; detractor; disparager; knocker

Hypernyms ("detractor" is a kind of...):

cynic; faultfinder (someone who is critical of the motives of others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "detractor"):

backbiter; defamer; libeler; maligner; slanderer; traducer; vilifier (one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel)

hatemonger (one who arouses hatred for others)

muckraker; mudslinger (one who spreads real or alleged scandal about another (usually for political advantage))

Derivation:

detract (take away a part from; diminish)

 Context examples 

He had performed many eminent services for the crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour; but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported, he had been often known to beat time in the wrong place; neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the mathematics.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Not fear of them individually, of course—our foulest detractors have never called us faint-hearted—but fear of their star, fear of their future, fear of the subtle brain whose plans always seemed to go aright, and of the heavy hand which had struck nation after nation to the ground.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Detractors are pleased to think it improbable, that so illustrious a person should descend to give so great a mark of distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I forgotten how apt some travellers are to boast of extraordinary favours they have received.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)