(v. t.) To sprinkle, as water or dust, upon anybody or anything, or to besprinkle any one with a liquid or with dust.
(v. t.) 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.
Example Sentences:
(1) He could face a charge if it is viewed that he is casting aspersions about match officials' fairness.
(2) Until I answer that question satisfactorily, I will not cast aspersions on others."
(3) And anything casting aspersions on China's rulers, history, military, human rights record – or any other aspect of the country – is out of the question .
(4) Governor Rick Perry said in a statement: This end run around the supreme court undermines the will of the people of Texas, and casts unfair aspersions on our state's common-sense efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections process.
(5) For aspersions to be cast about her alleged financial mismanagement and bullying shows a lack of respect to a woman who has committed almost 20 years to developing Kids Company.
(6) People are always going to cast aspersions on people regardless of their activities if they’re in a place under a government that’s unpopular.
(7) What do you have in common with all these very rich people?” Cameron replied: “The aspersion you are trying to cast is completely ridiculous.” He conceded that he had not asked Green about possible tax avoidance in HSBC’s Swiss branch at the time of his appointment.
(8) Duncan said she was not casting aspersions on the standard of the designs by Heatherwick.
(9) Her dogged pursuit of the then tax commissioner, Trevor Boucher, during a Senate committee, including vague aspersions on his new role as ambassador to the OECD, led to his resignation in 1993.
(10) "A contemptuous aspersion against a senior military officer"!
(11) I know some people (men) will feel obliged to cast aspersions on my looks – believe me, I've heard it all before – but I won't apologise for the truth.
(12) But he wasn't scraping the bottom of the anecdotal barrel for Grandma Dunham's subtle aspersions, he was actually making a representative claim: much as Reverend Wright is an appropriate spokesman for a certain strain of black racism, Madelyn Dunham is the face for that of most whites.
(13) You could practically hear Bashir crisply and obediently saluting as he accused Hardin of the crime of disrespect to a general; here is just some of what he shouted, literally, each time Hardin tried to move on: "I'm sorry, I cannot allow you to cast such a contemptuous aspersion against a senior military officer by demeaning his service to this country.
(14) It is wasteful to cast aspersions on Jessie J's desires and quantify her sexuality into a sort of swingometer.
(15) Setting aside the aspersions this casts on one of the most challenging jobs in our society, a Coalition government of all governments knows that money matters, especially in education.
(16) Beijing’s aspersions about sinister western forces aside, no one group is directing this occupation.
(17) Anyway, having cast aspersions over a tragic death, doubted a coroner and insulted a grieving mother, Moir's piece builds to its climax: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.
(18) Claiming to have renewed his faith in Islam, he said he did not agree with any character in The Satanic Verses who "casts aspersions... upon the authenticity of the holy Qur'an, or who rejects the divinity of Allah".
(19) are presumably confident enough to survive this mild aspersion without resort to racial violence.
(20) In its statement to the media after the allegations were published, the Cain campaign said Cain was being "targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics": Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr Cain's tenure as the chief executive officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, political trade press are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumours that never stood up to the facts.
Libel
Definition:
(n.) A brief writing of any kind, esp. a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.
(n.) Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
(n.) A malicious publication expressed either in print or in writing, or by pictures, effigies, or other signs, tending to expose another to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. Such publication is indictable at common law.
(n.) The crime of issuing a malicious defamatory publication.
(n.) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of his cause of action, and of the relief he seeks.
(v. t.) To defame, or expose to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, by a writing, picture, sign, etc.; to lampoon.
(v. t.) To proceed against by filing a libel, particularly against a ship or goods.
(v. i.) To spread defamation, written or printed; -- with against.
Example Sentences:
(1) Brett added companies should have to prove some financial damage – or the potential of financial damage – before they are allowed to launch a libel case.
(2) First, there are major vested interests, such as large corporations, foreign billionaires and libel lawyers, who will attempt to scupper reform.
(3) "In recent years, though, the increased threat of costly libel actions has begun to have a chilling effect on scientific and academic debate and investigative journalism."
(4) Aside from the fact that it is intemperate and inaccurate, it is also libelous.
(5) And there are plenty who think that, as our libel laws are cleaned up, smart lawyers are switching horses to privacy.
(6) The case, which had been going on for four years, became a cause celebre, one of a number that were used to spearhead a campaign for change to the libel laws by campaigners for freedom of speech.
(7) He stressed that the sister-in-law and her husband were not only accused of circulating libellously untrue stories but also of harassment of the wealthy financier.
(8) Polonsky is hoping to sue Lebedev for libel and is seeking damages for defamation, his lawyer Andrew Stephenson has said.
(9) Thousands who have confronted the possibility of a libel action have self-censored or backed down.
(10) He added that London remained the "libel capital of the world – the place where the rich and dodgy flock to keep their reputations intact".
(11) Newspapers have been lobbying hard to stave off a Leveson law of any kind, arguing that the press is already subject to laws ranging from libel to data protection and computer misuse acts to guard against illegal activities.
(12) Instead, NMT sued Wilmshurst in London, which has become the libel capital of the world.
(13) Priority has been given to applying sticking-plasters to libel law when urgent surgery is needed to regulate a tabloid newspaper industry that has been shown to have no regard for privacy or the criminal law.
(14) But Miller, in continuing to urge publishers to be "recognised" by the charter did refer to the "incentives", meaning a protection from the payment of legal costs for libel claimants (even if unsuccessful) and the imposition of exemplary damages (which would be very doubtful anyway).
(15) The inquiry originally looked as if it would be confined to the issue of "libel tourism", but it seems officials believed it would not be possible to restrict the inquiry in this way.
(16) His charge sheet includes numerous assaults (one against a waiter who served him the wrong dish of artichokes); jail time for libelling a fellow painter, Giovanni Baglione, by posting poems around Rome accusing him of plagiarism and calling him Giovanni Coglione (“Johnny Bollocks”); affray (a police report records Caravaggio’s response when asked how he came by a wound: “I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs.
(17) The former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell was a Jekyll and Hyde character who employed a mixture of charm and menace, his libel trial against the Sun newspaper over the Plebgate affair heard.
(18) In a letter to Hodge on Tuesday, Duncan also claimed that Hodge, the MP for Barking, had made “undoubtedly libellous assertions” about the tax affairs of the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver.
(19) The libel laws have been long been considered to restrict free speech.
(20) What about the chilling effects of libel tourism and a system that both adds cost to stories and stifles freedom of expression?