DISCREDIT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does discredit mean? 

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

1. the state of being held in low esteem

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

• DISCREDIT (verb)
  The verb DISCREDIT has 3 senses:

1. cause to be distrusted or disbelieved

2. damage the reputation of

3. reject as false; refuse to accept

  Familiarity information: DISCREDIT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCREDIT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being held in low esteem

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

discredit; disrepute

Context example:

because of the scandal the school has fallen into disrepute

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

dishonor; dishonour (a state of shame or disgrace)

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

infamy (evil fame or public reputation)

Derivation:

discredit (cause to be distrusted or disbelieved)

discredit (damage the reputation of)

• DISCREDIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they discredit    ... he / she / it discredits   
Past simple: discredited   
Past participle: discredited   
-ing form: discrediting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to be distrusted or disbelieved

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

The paper discredited the politician with its nasty commentary

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

brush aside; brush off; discount; dismiss; disregard; ignore; push aside (bar from attention or consideration)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

discredit (the state of being held in low esteem)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Damage the reputation of

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

discredit; disgrace

Context example:

This newspaper story discredits the politicians

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

belittle; disparage; pick at (express a negative opinion of)

Sentence frames:

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

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to discredit Sue

Derivation:

discredit (the state of being held in low esteem)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Reject as false; refuse to accept

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

disbelieve; discredit

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

reject (refuse to accept or acknowledge)

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

doubt (consider unlikely or have doubts about)

distrust; mistrust; suspect (regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

“You are ready enough to use all the information that the police can lay at your disposal, and then you try to finish the case yourself and bring discredit on them.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You could scarcely escape discredit and misery.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But, by my hilt! you must render them back to me, camarade, lest you bring discredit upon my mission, and I will pay you for them at armorers' prices.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She compared Tennyson, and Browning, and her favorite prose masters with him, and to his hopeless discredit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This was an article not to be entered on by himself; but a very intimate friend of his, a Colonel Wallis, a highly respectable man, perfectly the gentleman, (and not an ill-looking man, Sir Walter added), who was living in very good style in Marlborough Buildings, and had, at his own particular request, been admitted to their acquaintance through Mr Elliot, had mentioned one or two things relative to the marriage, which made a material difference in the discredit of it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She could not help being vexed at the non-appearance of Mr. Thorpe, for she not only longed to be dancing, but was likewise aware that, as the real dignity of her situation could not be known, she was sharing with the scores of other young ladies still sitting down all the discredit of wanting a partner.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

If every play is to be objected to, you will act nothing, and the preparations will be all so much money thrown away, and I am sure that would be a discredit to us all.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She wished to discredit it entirely, repeatedly exclaiming, This must be false!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She feared for William; by no means convinced by all that he could relate of his own horsemanship in various countries, of the scrambling parties in which he had been engaged, the rough horses and mules he had ridden, or his many narrow escapes from dreadful falls, that he was at all equal to the management of a high-fed hunter in an English fox-chase; nor till he returned safe and well, without accident or discredit, could she be reconciled to the risk, or feel any of that obligation to Mr. Crawford for lending the horse which he had fully intended it should produce.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had been repeatedly very earnest in trying to get Anne included in the visit to London, sensibly open to all the injustice and all the discredit of the selfish arrangements which shut her out, and on many lesser occasions had endeavoured to give Elizabeth the advantage of her own better judgement and experience; but always in vain: Elizabeth would go her own way; and never had she pursued it in more decided opposition to Lady Russell than in this selection of Mrs Clay; turning from the society of so deserving a sister, to bestow her affection and confidence on one who ought to have been nothing to her but the object of distant civility.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)