ASPERSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Asperse

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verb

Asperse v. t. (past & past part. aspersed; pres. part. aspersing)

To sprinkle, as water or dust, upon anybody or anything, or to besprinkle any one with a liquid or with dust.

To bespatter with foul reports or false and injurious charges; to tarnish in point of reputation or good name; to slander or calumniate; as, to asperse a poet or his writings; to asperse a man's character. "With blackest crimes aspersed."

Synonyms: To slander; defame; detract from; calumniate; vilify. To Asperse, Defame, Slander, Calumniate. These words have in common the idea of falsely assailing the character of another. To asperse is figuratively to cast upon a character hitherto unsullied the imputation of blemishes or faults which render it offensive or loathsome. To defame is to detract from a man's honor and reputation by charges calculated to load him with infamy. Slander (etymologically the same as scandal) and calumniate, from the Latin, have in common the sense of circulating reports to a man's injury from unworthy or malicious motives. Men asperse their neighbors by malignant insinuations; they defame by advancing charges to blacken or sully their fair fame; they slander or calumniate by spreading injurious reports which are false, or by magnifying slight faults into serious errors or crimes.

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Etymology of 'Asperse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Asperse" Quotes from Famous Books

... born to vex the state, With wrangling talents form'd for foul debate: Curb that impetuous tongue, nor rashly vain, And singly mad, asperse the sovereign reign. Have we not known thee, slave! of all our host, The man who acts the least, upbraids the most? Think not the Greeks to shameful flight to bring, Nor let those lips profane the name of king. For our return we trust the heavenly powers; Be that their care; ...

— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... agreeably, to encourage warmly, to counsel wisely: to sing with, to drink with, and to kiss with: and that they should turn them into the mouths of adders, bears, wolves, hyenas, and whistle like tempests, and emit breath through them like distillations of aspic poison, to asperse and vilify the innocent labours of their fellow creatures who are desirous ...

— Figures of Several Centuries • Arthur Symons

... that I could not, even in my own mind, settle if it were right to connect myself with her so closely, till I could procure information more positive in her favour, in order to answer the attacks of those who asperse her,(216) and who would highly blame me for entering into a correspondence with a character not more unquestionably known to me. I had been desirous to wait, suspended, till this fuller knowledge might be brought about; but I ...

— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... and crouching, "you asperse my honor,—my sacred honor, Madam. You see-let me say a word, now-you are leting your temper get the better of you. I never, and the public know I never did-I never did a dishonorable thing in my life." Turning to the bewildered old man, he continues: "to be called a knave, and ...

— Justice in the By-Ways - A Tale of Life • F. Colburn Adams

Words linked to "Asperse" : accuse, libel, badmouth, malign, traduce, slander, defame, drag through the mud, sully, smear, besmirch, calumniate, assassinate, aspersion, denigrate, smirch, charge