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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 fact, the legal threat is much greater in the U.K. because the libel laws are tougher in the U.K. So there was no fear around putting it out in the U.S.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 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

And her parties, and their vigorous libel actions against national newspapers.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

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

In response, Meshi-Zahav wrote a letter saying “these libels are baseless and appear more as gossip and closing of accounts against me.”

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2021

"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

Adams’s Federalists, he writes, “struck at enemies at home with laws allowing the president to deport aliens he deemed dangerous and the federal courts to prosecute libels on the federal government.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 4, 2019

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 the article was “fundamentally inaccurate” and the newspaper libeled him when it suggested he lied in his initial public statements about his case challenging the government.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2023

Former engineer says Tesla forced her out and then libeled her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2022

The founders of Alfa Bank, a major Russian financial institution, are suing Fusion GPS, claiming the firm libeled them.

From New York Times ● May 15, 2021

Now let us glance at the means adopted to get rid of this our breath, this breath of which our words are made, libeled as poisonous.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I. by

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

From The Guardian ● Dec. 12, 2019

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

From Nature ● May 1, 2018

The council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey".

From BBC ● May 30, 2011

South Tyneside Council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey".

From BBC ● May 29, 2011

Elizabeth, unless she is much libelled, would have avoided the execution of Mary Stuart by resort to assassination, only that her instruments were found scrupulous.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 by Various

Claiming that she ruined his reputation and career, Depp is suing Heard for $50 million for allegedly libeling him in a 2018 op-ed she wrote that was published in the Washington Post.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2022

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

From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2022

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

He then boldly read those words to Congress and millions of people, defaming & libeling me.” — tweets on Sept. 28.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2019

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

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

In 2010, it paid five-figure damages to Sheryl Gascoigne for libelling her over her relationship with her former husband.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 10, 2011

For this he was accused of treason, insult to the emperor, and libelling Bismarck, and in his absence condemned to five years’ penal servitude.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various




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