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Definition of "libel" []

  • A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation. (noun)
  • The act of presenting such material to the public. (noun)
  • The written claims presented by a plaintiff in an action at admiralty law or to an ecclesiastical court. (noun)
  • To publish a libel about (a person). See Synonyms at malign. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "libel" in a sentence
  • "April except (1) Dr. Royce's insistence that my reply to his first libel should _not be published at all without his second libel_, and"
  • "Jill and Gretta are apparently on the job and both using the term libel as if they knew what it meant."
  • ""A thrush forgets in a year," which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with another singer,"