to vilify
- verb
- /ˈvɪləˌfaɪ/
- Politicians often vilify their opponents during election campaigns to gain public support.
- vilify someone
- vilify society
- to vilify and threaten
So you have people who really vilify each other from both sides.
- So you have people who really vilify each other from both sides.
- If people don't like it, don't vilify your audience.
- And and men are vilified for wanting that.
- Who is it that wins when meat gets vilified?
- So to vilify her, I think is is misplaced emotion.
- So got booed out of the club, got absolutely vilified.
- And then I was the most vilified woman in Britain for a while and I wasn't ready for that.
- So you can vilify those groups, but it's a hell of a lot more difficult to vilify marijuana today.
- We were talking about Pablo Escobar and ruthless man, glorified by some, vilified by others.
- Coffee has been vilified by many sources, even some religions are anti coffee.
- And while the golden children may be vilified as the ones who had the easiest ride in childhood, it's all relative.
- So if you find that we need not vilify bread as a blanket term, we can have that and feel like we're nourishing ourselves on some level.
Examples
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Lee was vilified by the PRC as a separatist and accused of being a traitor.
Academic text (2014) -
Every president from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush vilified these forces.
Academic text (2003) -
So you have people who really vilify each other from both sides.
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Well, I feel like you can want things to change without trying to vilify everything about that.
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Thus, there was continuing reason to vilify the Japanese as a nation and as a people.
Academic text (2004) -
The press is competing for who can vilify you the most.
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People love their artists to bare their souls, then vilify them if they go too far.
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Now I don't mean to vilify my parents.
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These immigrants that are being vilified now build this.
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The paper continued to vilify the Tudeh, often calling its members infidels.
Academic text (2008)
Synonyms
Make a person, group, or thing seem evil and dangerous, often unfairly
To harm someone's reputation so others stop trusting them
To say bad things about someone without a good reason to make them seem less important
To make someone or something seem not important
To say harmful or false things about someone to hurt them
To speak badly about someone or something to show little respect
Treat someone as shameful and not worthy of respect
To say angry, insulting things about someone or something
To speak badly about someone behind their backs
To criticize or punish someone very harshly
To criticize someone publicly to make them feel ashamed
To speak badly about someone in public to hurt their reputation
Say bad things about someone in public to show others what they did
Say or do things that make someone seem less respected
To say insulting things about someone to harm their reputation
To criticize someone angrily using harsh words
To say bad things about someone in public to make them feel ashamed
Antonyms
How Harsh
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Formal
- Offensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Vilify comes from the word vile ('worthless' or 'bad') plus the ending -fy ('make'), so it originally meant 'make someone seem worthless'. That's why to vilify someone now is to speak or write badly about them to hurt their reputation.