Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An unfavorable or damaging remark; slander: Don't cast aspersions on my honesty.
- n. The act of defaming or slandering.
- n. A sprinkling, especially with holy water.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A sprinkling, as of or with water.
- n. The making of calumnious reports, imputations, or charges; a derogatory assertion or criticism; calumny; censure.
Wiktionary
- n. An attack on somebody's reputation or good name, often in the phrase to cast aspersions upon….
- n. A sprinkling of holy water.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A sprinkling, as with water or dust, in a literal sense.
- n. The spreading of calumniations reports or charges which tarnish reputation, like the bespattering of a body with foul water; calumny.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
- n. a disparaging remark
- n. the act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare)
Etymologies
- From Latin aspersio ("sprinkling"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This kind of aspersion on a serious and honorable scholar who scrupulously abstained from imposing his personal views on the conference is no better than political name-calling.”
“The South German cannot endure the North German, the Englishman casts every kind of aspersion upon the Scot, the Spaniard despises the Portuguese.”
Matt Cooper: Clinton, Obama and the Narcissism of Small Differences
“OpEdNews - Quicklink: George Allen and the "aspersion" of Judaism”
OpEdNews - Quicklink: George Allen and the "aspersion" of Judaism
“VIEW FAVORITES yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'George Allen and the "aspersion" of Judaism'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'So why is Allen so upset?”
OpEdNews - Quicklink: George Allen and the "aspersion" of Judaism
“On the contrary, I made such efforts to welcome the shower of dirty water, that at the end of half an hour I had taken quite a fancy to this novel kind of aspersion, and I resolved to come as often as I could to the happy spot where such treasures were freely bestowed.”
“I protest in the name of my countrywomen against the aspersion which is cast upon them by those who say that woman is not fit to hold office or discharge public trusts.”
“For in no way can their '' aspersion '' be considered baptism.”
“Thought it cast some kind of aspersion on dear Eric's clinical judgement, I suppose. ”
“aspersion" cast on the city, especially after last year's incident in Elkhart, Ind. Yes, Mr. President, no one with a triple-digit IQ thought you were intentionally denigrating Las Vegas.”
“Reading out excerpts from The Girls to my wife, I found that the same aspersion annoyed her much less as a sententia — “When one goes out with a woman, it does not matter whether a thing is good or bad, but only that it should cost a great deal of money” — than as an aside: “We all know how expensive women are.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aspersion’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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SAT 2
platitude, parsimonious, perspicacious, catharsis, captious, munificent, penurious, arid, portentous, ossified, nascent, perfidy and 13 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 202 more...
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Words to Know
Words that will hopefully help for the sat.
capricious, bombastic, decorous, loquacious, ossified, jingoism, mitigated, venerable, supercilious, pugnacious, jubilant, Perfidy and 17 more...
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Citicize/Criticism
belittle, berate, calumny, castigate, decry, defamation, disparage, excoriate, gainsay, harangue, impugn, inveigh and 9 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Words I had to look up, or I liked, from Robert Louis Stevenson's travelogue 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes'.
pediment, drugget, raiment, scurrilous, stripling, distaff, calumniate, valise, stolid, appurtenance, spencer, vaticination and 42 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
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My GRE words
abase, abate, aberrant, abet, abeyance, abject, abjure, ablution, abnegation, abortive, abrogate, abscission and 140 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for aspersion.

Drogulus Strange how a word can simultaneously mean "the act of defaming of slandering" and "a sprinkling with holy water". Sep 7, 2012