as·perse

(ə-spûrs′)

tr.v. as·persed, as·pers·ing, as·pers·es

a. To spread false or damaging accusations or insinuations against (someone).

b. To slander or libel; defame.

2. To sprinkle, especially with holy water.

[Middle English, to besprinkle, from Latin aspergere, aspers- : ad-, ad- + spargere, to strew.]

as·per′sive (-sĭv, -zĭv) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in classic literature

This is indeed a most aggravating circumstance, which attends depriving men unjustly of their reputation; for a man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him; but ought rather to despise such as affect his conversation, unless where a perfect intimacy must have convinced them that their friend's character hath been falsely and injuriously aspersed.

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Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the reproaches which the Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our religion with.

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Fyne assured me with some resentment, as though I had aspersed little Fyne's sanity.

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