belibel
English edit
Etymology edit
Verb edit
belibel (third-person singular simple present belibels, present participle belibelling or belibeling, simple past and past participle belibelled or belibeled)
- (transitive) To libel or traduce; to calumniate.
- a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:
- See the laziness of posterity ; so far from imitating the industry of their ancestors , that they belibel the pure effects of their pains as hellish achievements
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “belibel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)