(v. t.) To smirch or soil; to discolor; to obscure. Hence: To dishonor; to sully.
Example Sentences:
(1) An attempt by George Osborne to besmirch the reputation of Ed Balls by linking him directly to the Libor-fixing scandal lay in tatters on Monday night after the Bank of England cleared the shadow chancellor .
(2) The two further charges allege that he lied in September 2012, after the publication of the Hillsborough independent panel report, when he issued press releases saying he had never suggested Liverpool supporters’ behaviour caused the disaster, and had never “besmirched” supporters.
(3) He accused McCain and Graham of besmirching Rice and that her statements about Benghazi had been made with the backing of the White House.
(4) "I'm not willing to let my father's good name be besmirched and undermined in the way that the Daily Mail are doing.
(5) The ongoing orchestrated effort by the Abbott government to besmirch Professor Triggs is a shameful attempt to divert attention away from the important findings and recommendations in her report,” Marles said in a statement.
(6) Impatient with criticism from Jewish leaders, a Jobbik MEP, Krisztina Morvai, said she'd prefer "those who call themselves proud Hungarian Jews played in their leisure with their tiny circumcised dicks, instead of besmirching me".
(7) As a fugitive paedophile, Polanski had no good name to besmirch, particularly when the alleged besmirching consisted of the accusation that he was a groper.
(8) The Labour leader said the newspaper had overstepped the boundaries of civilised debate by deliberately "besmirching and undermining" his father, a Marxist academic who died in 1994.
(9) This American import has not only besmirched the concept of welfare, but also displaced the term "social security".
(10) To those who have discarded all principles, save that of profit before all else; to those who have turned their backs on the very idea of a truly democratic society, and aligned themselves to nothing but self-interest; to those who have betrayed the vision of equality, and justice, and compassion for all – that vision that provided the crucible from which came forth the National Health Service – I say to you, as Aneurin Bevan said in Trafalgar Square in 1956: you have besmirched the name of Britain; you have made us ashamed of the things of which formerly we were proud; you have offended against every principle of decency and there is only way in which you can even begin to restore your tarnished reputation.
(11) It couldn't be farther from the current image of Allen as a besieged and besmirched individual.
(12) The video has emerged as the defence minister, David Johnston, pushes for an inquiry into the ABC for “besmirching” the navy’s reputation.
(13) While he will now become deputy prime minister by virtue of being the crown prince, there is little in his record to suggest new thinking on the human and civil rights failings, including women’s rights and capital punishment, that continue to besmirch the country’s reputation.
(14) I felt a sudden, instinctive lurch – the thought of my phiz besmirching every hairdresser's salon and dentist's waiting room.
(15) A long exposure on Channel 4 news with the Ukip donor, Demetri Marchessini sought to besmirch the party with guilt by association.
(16) More to the point, libel is meant to protect men and women of good character from having their reputations besmirched.
(17) If you do anything, don’t besmirch the good hearts and the good values of the tens of thousands, the millions of Donald Trump supporters.” Arizona voting She clarified that she did not condone the Phoenix supporter’s language: “I think what he had to say was disgusting.” Trump has blamed “the dishonest media”, sometimes singling out reporters by name, for his recent collapse in the polls, and reporters have been subjected to jeers and even threats .
(18) Britain's ambassador reiterated the point that "peaceful activists do not have the means … to shoot down Ukrainian military helicopters," and France's ambassador asked "What right do we have to interfere in affairs of besmirched state trying to recover its sovereignty?"
(19) Conversely, the part-time mammographer, although not necessarily besmirching his professional competence, will tend to give the examination a bad reputation by unnecessary hedges and reporting uncertainties characterized by long winded reports.
(20) An attack, let’s not forget, that appears to have no qualms about drawing attention to itself … but carelessly forgets to use the opportunity to praise North Korea’s supreme leader or call for the movie besmirching his image to be withdrawn.” There are further inconsistencies with previous North Korean hacking attempts.
Debase
Definition:
(a.) To reduce from a higher to a lower state or grade of worth, dignity, purity, station, etc.; to degrade; to lower; to deteriorate; to abase; as, to debase the character by crime; to debase the mind by frivolity; to debase style by vulgar words.
Example Sentences:
(1) The borderline group scored significantly higher on the following scales: Disclosure (X), Debasement (Z), Passive-Aggressive (8A), Self-Defeating (8B), Borderline (C), and Major Depression (CC).
(2) I still have the stench of their debasement in my nostrils.
(3) Inevitably, they are not to everyone's taste: educated Mexicans are scandalised by what they see as the debasement of a noble folk tradition, the Catholic Church has denounced corridistas for glorifying the drugs trade, and at least five Mexican states have banned radios from airing the music.
(4) I said to Nick Boles, who at the time was the planning minister, ‘Have you been down to Eastleigh yet?’ and he said, ‘I’m told I’m not allowed to go down in case it inflames the whole housebuilding issue.’” Browne added: “The public, whether it’s the NHS or housebuilding, detect that gap, and you will see it now at constituency level with quite debased leaflet-based campaigning about what the parties are going to stop at local level, which is almost completely at odds with the macro-level speeches that the leaders are making up in Westminster.
(5) The impact reaches far beyond the figures inscribed on a Test-match scorebook and debases the credibility of the entire sport.
(6) If the system is to be effective, however, every temptation must be resisted by all involved parties to debase it by using it for self-serving purposes.
(7) But the most debased and vulgar abuse is directed at women, particularly liberal and secular women, and especially women who are not Hindu,” Guha said.
(8) In a society that values women on the basis of their sexuality, a woman who views herself as "debased" may see prostitution as a viable alternative--perhaps the only alternative.
(9) Failing all the above, do they have any worth in the rapidly debasing currency of iconicity?
(10) Twelve manipulation tactics were identified through separate factor analyses of two instruments based on different data sources: Charm, Reason, Coercion, Silent Treatment, Debasement, and Regression (replicating Buss et al., 1987), and Responsibility Invocation, Reciprocity, Monetary Reward, Pleasure Induction, Social Comparison, and Hardball (an amalgam of threats, lies, and violence).
(11) A possible cause of these complications may be the debasement of coagulation factors and opsonins in plasma after hepatectomy.
(12) They could not simultaneously debase the currency and back it with gold at a fixed rate.
(13) It's debased and stupefied, really, but that's daily politics."
(14) The progress in prenatal diagnosis and the possibility of replacing risk with security is about to debase the rationale of genetic counseling.
(15) Yet on this issue there appears to be a licence to reject our best scientists both here and abroad and rely instead on much less reliable views.” He has railed against the “dumbing down” of Australian debate in general and the debasing of smart policy for political gain.
(16) While this clown's latest assertion of his alpha-maleness, in debased imitation of Bertram Wooster's misadventures, will undoubtedly add to female consternation about a Drones Club government whose leader insults women and twits his rival for being insufficiently "macho", Mitchell's contribution to the public understanding of hegemonic masculinity also deserves a mention.
(17) A third factor is that currencies are being debased in the developed world, where sovereign debt is at record levels and bearish commentators fear the dollar could slump 20% in the next two years.
(18) Social cohesion is repeatedly challenged by the knowing use of debasing and divisive language, a politics where voters are encouraged to imagine all benefits claimants are scroungers and every migrant as potentially illegal.
(19) For Coetzee, the result reflected a debasement of Britain’s political culture: the traducing, with media complicity, of rational discourse by a leave campaign that targeted the very idea of factual argument.
(20) The purpose of these developments however is clear: to debase and disempower Republican Political Prisoners.” The republican prisoners warned: “Those overseeing and implementing these policies would do well to use history as their guide to see where their actions will lead.” In 2012 dissident republicans shot dead a Maghaberry prison officer, David Black , while he drove along a motorway on his way to work at the prison.