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''calumniate'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔

calumniate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

calumniate (third-person singular simple present calumniates, present participle calumniating, simple past and past participle calumniated)

  • (transitive) To make hurtful untrue comments about.
    • ✤ Synonyms: diss, slander
    • ✤ Hatred unto the truth did always falsely report and calumniate all godly men’s doings.1
    • ✤ I missed her when she was not on the stage, in spite of the absorbing interest of that most calumniated and ill-used person, the Jew. (Speaking of Fanny Kemble as Portia)2
    • ✤ There are adherents of each of the four French parties—Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and Republicans—in this little mountain-town; and they all hate, loathe, decry, and calumniate each other.3
    • ✤ During the period of Pergamos great experiments were gone through by the Church which saw a false church appear near her, the latter was even noticeable in th periods of Ephesus and Smyrna. The synagogue of Satan, the false church when it appeared, began to calumniate the true Church terribly; the latter has always been disowned by those who left her in order to become faithless disciples, also by false brethren and by the world.4
  • (transitive) To levy a false charge against, especially of a vague offense, with the intent to damage someone’s reputation or standing.
    • ✤ Synonyms: diss, slander, traduce; see also Thesaurus: defame

Etymology

First attested in 1554; borrowed from Latin calumniātus, perfect passive participle of calumnior (“to blame, cavil at; to accuse falsely”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kəˈlʌmni.eɪt/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. a. 1555, John Hooper, A Brief Treatise respecting Judge Hales: ↩

  2. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 229: ↩

  3. 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, “chapter 1”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes: ↩

  4. 1922, “The Epoch of Pergamos.”, in The Divine Revelation the Seven Spirits of God, 1st edition, volume I (Theology), Geneva, page 94: ↩