mindmap root((诽谤)) malign suggests a specific and often subtle misrepresentation but may not always imply deliberate lying: the most ~ed monarch in British history. traduce stresses the resulting ignominy and distress to the victim: so ~d the governor that he was driven from office. asperse implies a continued attack on a reputation often by indirect or insinuated detraction: each candidate ~d the other's motives. vilify implies an attempting to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse: no president was more ~ied by the press. caluminate imputes malice to the speaker and falsity to his or her assertion: threatened with a lawsuit for publicly ~ing the company. defame stresses the actual loss of or injury to a good name: forced to pay a substantial sum for ~ing her reputation. slander stresses the suffering of the victim from oral or written calumniation: town gossips carelessly ~ed their good name. libel implies the printing or writing and publication or circulation of something that defames a person or his or her reputation: sued the magazine for ~.