Adjacent Words

Scandal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SCAN'DAL, n. [L. scandalum; Gr. In Greek, this word signifies a stumbling block, something against which a person impinges, or which causes him to fall.]
1. Offense given by the faults of another.
His lustful orgies he enlarg'd even to the hill of scandal.
[In this sense, we now generally use offense.]
2. Reproachful aspersion; opprobrious censure; defamatory speech or report; something uttered which is false and injurious to reputation.
My known virtue is from scandal free.
3. Shame; reproach; disgrace. Such is the perverted state of the human mind that some of the most heinous crimes bring little scandal upon the offender.
SCAN'DAL, v.t.
1. To treat opprobriously; to defame; to asperse; to traduce; to blacken character.
I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, and after scandal them. [Little used.]
2. To scandalize; to offend. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people [syn: scandal, dirt, malicious gossip]
2: a disgraceful event [syn: scandal, outrage]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin scandalum stumbling block, offense, from Greek skandalon trap, stumbling block, offense; akin to Latin scandere to climb Date: 13th century 1. a. discredit brought upon religion by unseemly conduct in a religious person b. conduct that causes or encourages a lapse of faith or of religious obedience in another 2. loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety ; disgrace 3. a. a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it b. a person whose conduct offends propriety or morality <a scandal to the profession> 4. malicious or defamatory gossip 5. indignation, chagrin, or bewilderment brought about by a flagrant violation of morality, propriety, or religious opinion Synonyms: see offense II. transitive verb Date: 1592 1. obsolete disgrace 2. chiefly dialect defame, slander

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a a thing or a person causing general public outrage or indignation. b the outrage etc. so caused, esp. as a subject of common talk. c malicious gossip or backbiting. 2 Law a public affront, esp. an irrelevant abusive statement in court. Phrases and idioms: scandal sheet derog. a newspaper etc. giving prominence to esp. malicious gossip. Derivatives: scandalous adj. scandalously adv. scandalousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF scandale f. eccl.L scandalum f. Gk skandalon snare, stumbling-block

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Scandal Scan"dal, v. t. 1. To treat opprobriously; to defame; to asperse; to traduce; to slander. [R.] I do fawn on men and hug them hard And after scandal them. --Shak. 2. To scandalize; to offend. [Obs.] --Bp. Story. Syn: To defame; traduce; reproach; slander; calumniate; asperse; vilify; disgrace.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(scandals) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A scandal is a situation or event that is thought to be shocking and immoral and that everyone knows about. ...a financial scandal. N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. Scandal is talk about the shocking and immoral aspects of someone's behaviour or something that has happened. He loved gossip and scandal... 3. If you say that something is a scandal, you are angry about it and think that the people responsible for it should be ashamed. It is a scandal that a person can be stopped for no reason by the police. = disgrace N-SING: oft N that [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Defamation, aspersion, calumny, backbiting, slander, detraction, traducement, reproach, obloquy. 2. Disgrace, dishonor, shame, infamy, offence, reproach, discredit, disrepute, ignominy, odium, opprobrium, ingloriousness. II. v. a. Defame, traduce, libel, asperse.

Moby Thesaurus

abomination, abuse, asperse, aspersion, atrocity, backbiting, backstabbing, bad, badge of infamy, belittlement, bitchiness, black mark, black spot, blemish, burning shame, byword, byword of reproach, calumniate, calumniation, calumny, cattiness, character assassination, damage, defamation, defame, defilement, degradation, denigrate, depreciation, desecration, dirt, dirty shame, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, disparagement, disrepute, embarrassment, error, evil, gossip column, humiliation, ignominy, infamy, iniquity, innuendo, insinuation, juicy morsel, knavery, libel, low-down dirty shame, malicious gossip, obliquity, obloquy, outrage, peccancy, pity, profanation, reproach, reprobacy, sacrilege, scandalize, scandalmongering, shame, sin, slander, slur, smear, smirch, spot, stigma, taint, tale, terrible thing, tidbit, traducement, villainy, violation, whispering campaign, wrong