malign

1. adjective

a malign influence

Syn:

harmful, evil, bad, baleful, hostile, inimical, destructive, malignant, injurious; literary malefic, maleficent

Ant:

beneficial

2. verb

he maligned an innocent man

Syn:

defame, slander, libel, blacken someone's name/character, smear, vilify, speak ill of, cast aspersions on, run down, traduce, denigrate, disparage, slur, abuse, revile; informal badmouth, dis, knock; formal derogate, calumniate

Ant:

praise

••

malign, calumniate, defame, libel, slander, vilify

Do you want to ruin someone's life? You can malign someone, which is to say or write something evil without necessarily lying (she was maligned for her past association with radical causes). To calumniate is to make false and malicious statements about someone; the word often implies that you have seriously damaged that person's good name (after leaving his job, he spent most of his time calumniating and ridiculing his former boss). To defame is to cause actual injury to someone's good name or reputation (he defamed her by accusing her of being a spy). If you don't mind risking a lawsuit, you can libel the person, which is to write or print something that defames him or her (the tabloid libeled the celebrity and ended up paying the price). Slander, which is to defame someone orally, is seldom a basis for court action but can nevertheless cause injury to someone's reputation (after a loud and very public argument, she accused him of slandering her). If all else fails, you can vilify the person, which is to engage in abusive name-calling (even though he was found innocent by the jury, he was vilified by his neighbors).