LIBELED Synonyms: 40 Similar and Opposite Words

libeled

verb

variants or libelled

past tense of libel

as in smeared

to make untrue and harmful statements about the court decided that the newspaper's reportage of the former mayor, while irresponsible, did not constitute an effort to libel him

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for libeled

Verb

One prank involved Quan, Capshaw, and Harrison Ford surprising Spielberg with ice cream smeared all over their faces for one take.

— Marina Watts, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Sep. 2026
The bombshell discovery in the little red dot spectra was that the colors of hydrogen were smeared out across multiple shades.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of smeared

Verb

But the Saudis, humiliated by their losses in Yemen, seem likely to lash out.

— Kareem Fahim, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026
When she and the other part-time employees were told their positions were being eliminated, Valcarcel said she felt humiliated and disrespected.

— Verónica Egui Brito, Miami Herald, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of humiliated

Verb

Eugenie, who is twelfth in line to the British throne, is the second daughter of King Charles III’s disgraced younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

— Jack Guy, CNN Money, 18 Aug. 2026
The pair’s announcement comes shortly after RadarOnline reported that Eugenie’s father, disgraced former Prince Andrew, will not meet Adelaide in person.

— Allison DeGrushe, StyleCaster, 18 Aug. 2026

Definition of disgraced

Verb

Clemishire’s lawsuit, which was filed in 2025, claimed that Morris and other church leaders defamed her in an internal statement to staff and mischaracterized the abuse.

— Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Sep. 2026
Baldoni also filed a countersuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, in January 2025, alleging that the couple and their PR firm had defamed him and Wayfarer Studios.

— Leigh Blickley, Entertainment Weekly, 27 July 2026

Definition of defamed

Verb

What is often maligned as one of the worst tracks for racing due to the lack of overtaking opportunities will now have an extra race, surely opening the door for even more criticism.

— Luke Smith, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026
Slack continues to be a bright spot in the results — a major reversal from a couple years ago, when the company was maligned for paying too much to acquire the workplace messaging app during the Covid-19 pandemic.

— Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of maligned

Verb

But Timothy Leary’s version became the dominant idea of psychedelics, and when President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs began, psychedelics were vilified as the gateway to ruin.

— Claire Hoffman, Rolling Stone, 21 Sep. 2026
But the backlash against pandemic responses, including vaccine mandates, led to the vaccines and mRNA technology being vilified by some and becoming the focus of widespread misinformation.

— Rob Stein, NPR, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of vilified

Verb

The issue here is not with this project, which is building something artistic and beautiful, but with a broader, pro-AI tech culture that has discredited AI and its public image.

— James Folta, Literary Hub, 14 Sep. 2026
At the same time, the war on terror fueled an alarming rise in xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment and discredited the country’s political and foreign policy elites.

— Daniel Benjamin, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of discredited

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libel

libeled

libeler

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“Libeled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/libeled. Accessed 29 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of libeled

verb

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