Slander definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SLA'NDER, n.
1. A false tale or report maliciously uttered. and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens, by exposing min to impeachment and punishment, or by impairing his means of lining; defamation. Slander, that worst of poisons, ever finds an easy entrance to ignoble minds.
2 Disgrace; reproach; disreputation; ill name.
SLA'NDER, v.t. To defame; to injure by maliciously uttering a false report respecting one; to tarnish or impair the reputation of one by false tales, maliciously told or propagated.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another
2: an abusive attack on a person's character or good name [syn: aspersion, calumny, slander, defamation, denigration] v
1: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation" [syn: defame, slander, smirch, asperse, denigrate, calumniate, smear, sully, besmirch]

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb (slandered; slandering) Date: 13th century to utter slander against ; defame Synonyms: see malign • slanderer noun II. noun Etymology: Middle English sclaundre, slaundre, from Anglo-French esclandre, alteration of escandle, from Late Latin scandalum stumbling block, offense — more at scandal Date: 14th century 1. the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation 2. a false and defamatory oral statement about a person — compare libel • slanderous adjective • slanderously adverb • slanderousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a malicious, false, and injurious statement spoken about a person. 2 the uttering of such statements; calumny. 3 Law false oral defamation (cf. LIBEL). --v.tr. utter slander about; defame falsely. Derivatives: slanderer n. slanderous adj. slanderously adv. Etymology: ME sclaundre f. AF esclaundre, OF esclandre alt. f. escandle f. LL scandalum: see SCANDAL

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slander Slan"der, n. [OE. sclandere, OF. esclandre, esclandle, escandre, F. esclandre, fr. L. scandalum, Gr. ??? a snare, stumbling block, offense, scandal; probably originally, the spring of a trap, and akin to Skr. skand to spring, leap. See Scan, and cf. Scandal.] 1. A false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation of another; the malicious utterance of defamatory reports; the dissemination of malicious tales or suggestions to the injury of another. Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back; the former way, indeed, seems to be the most generous, but yet is a great fault, and that which we call ``reviling;'' the latter is more mean and base, and that which we properly call ``slander'', or ``Backbiting.'' --Tillotson. [We] make the careful magistrate The mark of slander. --B. Jonson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slander Slan"der, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slandered; p. pr. & vb. n. Slandering.] 1. To defame; to injure by maliciously uttering a false report; to tarnish or impair the reputation of by false tales maliciously told or propagated; to calumniate. O, do not slander him, for he is kind. --Shak. 2. To bring discredit or shame upon by one's acts. Tax not so bad a voice To slander music any more than once. --Shak. Syn: To asperse; defame; calumniate; vilify; malign; belie; scandalize; reproach. See Asperse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(slanders, slandering, slandered) 1. Slander is an untrue spoken statement about someone which is intended to damage their reputation. Compare libel. Dr. Bach is now suing the company for slander... N-VAR 2. To slander someone means to say untrue things about them in order to damage their reputation. He has been questioned on suspicion of slandering the Prime Minister. VERB: V n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

slan'-der (substantive, dibbah, "slander"; diabolos, "slanderer"; verb raghal, "to slink about" as a talebearer, lashan, "to use the tongue," "to slander"; diaballo, "to calumniate," "to slander"; and other words): Slander (etymologically a doublet of "scandal," from OFr. esclandre, Latin scandalum, "stumblingblock") is an accusation maliciously uttered, with the purpose or effect of damaging the reputation of another. As a rule it is a false charge (compare Mt 5:11); but it may be a truth circulated insidiously and with a hostile purpose (e.g. Da 3:8, "brought accusation against," where Septuagint has diaballo, "slander"; Lu 16:1, the same Greek word). Warnings, condemnations and complaints in reference to this sin are very frequent, both in the Old Testament and New Testament. Mischievous "tale-bearing" or "whispering" is condemned (Le 19:16; Eze 22:9). There are repeated warnings against evil-speaking (as in Ps 34:13; Pr 15:28; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8; Jas 4:11; 1Pe 3:10), which is the cause of so much strife between man and man (Pr 16:27-30), and which recoils on the speaker himself to his destruction (Ps 101:5; 140:11). Especially is false witness, which is "slander carried into a court of justice," to be condemned and punished (Ex 20:16; De 19:16-21; compare Pr 12:17; 14:5,25; 19:5; 21:28; 24:28). Special cases of slander more than usually mean are when a wife's chastity is falsely impeached by her husband (De 22:13-19), and when one slanders a servant to his master (Pr 30:10). Even a land may be slandered as well as persons (Nu 14:36). Slanderers and backbiters are mentioned in some of Paul's darkest catalogues of evildoers (Ro 1:29,30; 2Co 12:20; 2Ti 3:3). To refrain from slander is an important qualification for citizenship in theocracy (Ps 15:1,3; 24:3,4) and for a place in the Christian church (1Ti 3:11; Tit 2:3). Jesus Himself was the victim of slanders (Mt 11:19) and of false testimony (Mt 27:63). The apostles, too, came in for a full share of it (e.g. Ac 24:5 f; 28:22; 2Co 6:8). In the case of Paul, even his central doctrine of justification was "slanderously reported" as if it encouraged immorality (Ro 3:8). The devil (= "the calumniator") is represented as the great accuser of God's people (Re 12:10), the slanderer paragraph excellence (compare Job 1:9-11; Zec 3:1).

See also CRIMES; PUNISHMENTS.

D. Miall Edwards

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Defame, calumniate, vilify, scandalize, decry, reproach, malign, traduce, brand, blacken, asperse, backbite, libel, belie. 2. Disparage, detract from. II. n. 1. Defamation, aspersion, detraction, calumny, backbiting, scandal, obloquy. 2. Libel, calumny.

Moby Thesaurus

asperse, assail, attack, backbite, backbiting, backstabbing, barefaced lie, belie, belittlement, bitchiness, blackwash, calumniate, calumniation, calumny, cattiness, character assassination, consummate lie, damage, decry, defamation, defamation of character, defame, denigrate, depreciation, dirt, disparage, disparagement, gossip column, hurt, injure, juicy morsel, libel, malicious gossip, malign, misrepresentation, monstrous lie, muckrake, muckraking, obloquy, out-and-out lie, roorback, scandal, scandalmongering, slur, smear, strumpet, tale, tear down, the big lie, tidbit, traduce, traducement, vilification, vilify, whispering campaign, whopper