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Showing results for libel. Search instead for libele.
Definitions

libel

[lahy-buhl] / ˈlaɪ bəl /
NOUN
purposeful lie about someone, often malicious
Synonyms
Antonyms




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Also as a result of her piece, she was slapped with a one-million-dollar libel suit, subpoenaed as a witness in a liquor laws case against the Playboy Club, and received “obscene and threatening” calls.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 5, 2026

In 1964, a unanimous Supreme Court said the 1st Amendment’s protection for the freedom of speech and the press limited state libel verdicts.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 29, 2026

The case type is described as "Media and Communication -- Part 7 Claim -- Defamation -- libel and slander".

From Barron's Apr. 10, 2026

A year after he lampooned a judge in a mocking poem, he had the misfortune of standing before him charged with seditious libel for a pamphlet satirizing the Church.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 18, 2026

If so, this was unusual: Most professional journalists retain interview transcripts lest what they’ve written generate a charge of libel or invasion of privacy.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

What’s needed is a pragmatic and courageous paradigm shift, one that begins with naming and recognizing the contemporary libels used to demonize Jews.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 26, 2026

Heard’s lawyers, who have filed their own countersuit against Depp, say nothing in the article libels him.

From Seattle Times Apr. 19, 2022

"Far from increasing a public figure’s burden in a defamation action, the common law deemed libels against public figures to be, if anything, more serious and injurious than ordinary libels," Thomas wrote.

From Fox News Feb. 19, 2019

Jefferson did not retract his libels, but he made an exception for Banneker by allowing him to participate in surveying the District of Columbia.

From Textbooks Jan. 18, 2018

At the start of the correspondence Adams had felt deep resentment toward Jefferson for the libels he had sponsored during the Adams presidency.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Patel’s defamation suit accuses The Atlantic of “actual malice,” a legal test that needs to be met for public officials to successfully prove they’ve been libeled.

From Salon Apr. 20, 2026

Harry claims that the newspaper libeled him when it suggested that the prince lied in his initial public statements about the suit against the government.

From Washington Times Mar. 17, 2023

It prompted FUNAI’s rank-and-file to strike, claiming that the agency had libeled Pereira and demanding its president be fired.

From Seattle Times Jun. 17, 2022

Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are back in court to determine whether Heard libeled her ex-husband in 2018 when she wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 19, 2022

The door was shut, and the libeler stood trembling before the libeled.

From McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey

Jewell filed lawsuits against many of the publications and networks who he claimed had libelled him.

From The Guardian Dec. 12, 2019

"Scott was detained and interviewed at that time, however, due to a lack of corroboration, no charges were able to be libelled."

From BBC Sep. 12, 2018

The dead can’t be libelled, but they can have their privacy invaded.

From Nature May 1, 2018

The Crown requires to lead evidence from both witnesses in relation to what they saw or heard on the day libelled.

From BBC May 17, 2012

She is present at the first meal, and declares to her neighbours that things at sea are not so bad as some people pretend, and the Atlantic is too often libelled.

From Rambles in Womanland by Max O'Rell

Judge Karen Steyn on Friday cleared Coleen Rooney of libeling Rebekah Vardy when she alleged that Vardy had leaked her private social media posts to the tabloid press.

From Seattle Times Jul. 29, 2022

The burden is still on Palin to prove that Bennet is guilty of libeling her.

From Slate Feb. 9, 2022

And who knows who’s responsible for an unnecessary portrayal of media ethics that strains credulity and verges on libeling the fourth estate.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 12, 2021

Last month, she sued two Portuguese news outlets for allegedly libeling a New Jersey man by tying him to a far-right Portuguese political party.

From Washington Post Sep. 22, 2021

Burr was there because Hamilton had been libeling him throughout their crisscrossing careers in public life.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

In 1992, some of the subjects of “Boys of Zinc,” along with an organization representing the mothers of soldiers killed in the war, sued Alexievich for libelling the Soviet military.

From The New Yorker Oct. 26, 2015

I feel it’s happening already, that the people who say, ‘He’s lying, he’s plagiarising, he’s libelling us’, will end up having more importance than my own research, my own attempts to investigate how things work.”

From The Guardian Oct. 3, 2015

Photograph: Ian Gavan/Getty Images It seems that , found guilty of libelling Lord McAlpine, is a Twitter martyr in some quarters.

From The Guardian May 25, 2013

Her second marriage ended in divorce within a year, and she had to settle out of court with her first husband's family over accusations that she was libelling them in her act.

From The Guardian Aug. 21, 2012

Mrs. Riddle, you have spent a large part of your life in libelling all that I hold dearest; you will now be taught of how great a libel you have been guilty.

From Between the Dark and the Daylight by Richard Marsh




Vocabulary lists containing libel


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