What's the difference between libel and vilify?

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?

Vilify


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make vile; to debase; to degrade; to disgrace.
  • (v. t.) To degrade or debase by report; to defame; to traduce; to calumniate.
  • (v. t.) To treat as vile; to despise.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Social workers are blamed and vilified, but we should be proud of what we do Read more “We have six seats for 11 people,” says Sarah Grade*, a children and families social worker based in south London.
  • (2) Social media has seized on the story, turning the Eastern Washington University’s professor of African studies into a figure vilified and mocked for cultural appropriation in the midst of fraught debates over transgender identity and police shootings of black people.
  • (3) What if the ad vilified African Americans, or Jews, or any other group for which public denigration is less permissible?
  • (4) As campaigns director for the pressure group, Oxley spent years vilifying government spending – with a special assault on development.
  • (5) Vilified, prosecuted, but – in the court of public opinion – ultimately vindicated: this is what happens to the heroes of democracy.
  • (6) David Wall: "Mark van Bommel has been wrongly vilified and miscast as a serial fouler.
  • (7) Some are starting to vilify and insult the disappeared students and demonise their parents and their demands,” said Hernández.
  • (8) Mark Field, the Conservative MP for the City of London and Westminster , said Hester had been "vilified" and warned that the intense row would put the best candidates off running the majority state-owned bank in the future.
  • (9) John Kerry , the US secretary of state, is vilified for continuing to insist that only negotiations can end the conflict – while simultaneously sidestepping the central question of Assad’s future – in line with Putin’s position.
  • (10) We are resigned to being blamed and vilified for the actions of any Muslim anywhere in the world.
  • (11) Instead, vilify and humiliate anybody who challenges – however meekly – the status quo.
  • (12) I was vilified, relentlessly, over 33 days, with over 800 hate emails ...
  • (13) His reputation was destroyed and he was vilified, he says.
  • (14) Barnaby Joyce defends halal after Coalition MPs express concern Read more “It is against the law to vilify Jews and it is not politically correct to denigrate blacks or gays.
  • (15) He remains popular despite efforts by Muslim groups to vilify him and is seen as the frontrunner in the election, though many voters are angry with him for evicting large numbers from slums to modernise Jakarta.
  • (16) Jayne Ozanne, a prominent campaigner for LGBT equality within the Anglican church, said: “Jeffrey is already a bishop in many of our eyes – he has been the ‘chief pastor’ to those of us who have felt discriminated against and vilified for the sake of our sexuality.
  • (17) Though he loves sport, he is now sworn off attending NFL matches at the MetLife stadium after attending a Jets v Titans game with his girlfriend and being “vilified from the parking lot to my seat for wearing a scarf”.
  • (18) Instead, we are vilified and made out to be money-grubbing if we complain about our working conditions.
  • (19) While ministers vilify people on benefits ( Freud sorry for comment about disabled people , 15 October), we urge everyone who thinks this is wrong to stand up for benefit justice.
  • (20) For decades they have been arbitrarily detained, denied education and livelihood, harassed, vilified in the media, and executed.