as in abusive
marked by harsh insulting language
a scurrilous satire on the scandal that enveloped Washington
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Recent Examples of scurrilous
The good people of Lancaster County were innocent of the charges thrown at them by raving Southerners and scurrilous Democrats.
—
Matthew Karp, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
One upshot was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which to this day insulates social media from legal liability for the content — however incendiary or scurrilous — that users post.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2025
Facts won’t deter Republicans on this point, however, for the same reason that Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, keep repeating their scurrilous lies about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of Ohio: white anxiety about a diversifying country has become one of the Party’s greatest assets.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2024
Lee is obsessed with this for a reason that’s scurrilous but also kind of tragic.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 3 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for scurrilous
Matthew Karp, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
One upshot was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which to this day insulates social media from legal liability for the content — however incendiary or scurrilous — that users post.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2025
Facts won’t deter Republicans on this point, however, for the same reason that Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, keep repeating their scurrilous lies about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of Ohio: white anxiety about a diversifying country has become one of the Party’s greatest assets.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2024
Lee is obsessed with this for a reason that’s scurrilous but also kind of tragic.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 3 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for scurrilous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scurrilous
Adjective
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Based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, The Chronology of Water casts the actress as a competitive swimmer who comes to terms with an abusive childhood while navigating self-destructive behavior.—
Chris Gardner,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Oct. 2025
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The period was marked by the dramatic fall from grace of his younger brother, then-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who admitted to smoking crack cocaine and then was dogged by evidence of a string of other abusive behavior.—
NPR,
NPR,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
This was all completely outrageous.—
David Wingrave,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Oct. 2025
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Including the one about Britney and the knife The most outrageous and tragic claim of the book is one that Federline says his sons told him.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
20 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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To educate all of them in similar ways is insulting, and silly.—
Josh Hammer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 Sep. 2025
-
Perkins said the drink bore the insulting message.—
Victoria Moorwood,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Beside one of those blandly obscene bidets.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Oct. 2025
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But the show avoided an FCC probe as the West Coast delay was censored, and the East Coast broadcast aired after the 6am-10pm window during which obscene content is prohibited on broadcast TV and radio.—
Glenn Garner,
Deadline,
19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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In the years intervening, the poem has remained a lodestar, a contravening presence when, in present day America’s vituperative political landscape, the humanities disciplines and higher education itself has been forced to invoke and defend its own authority.—
Elaine L. Wang
September 11,
Literary Hub,
11 Sep. 2025
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Even the company’s most vituperative detractors acknowledge its engineering genius and applaud its success in driving down launch expenses (unlike many defense contractors, SpaceX largely eats the cost of its failures).—
Franklin Foer,
The Atlantic,
28 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scurrilous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scurrilous. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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