Definition of "libel"

libel

/ˈlaɪbəl/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural libels
1. (countable) A written or pictorial false statement which unjustly seeks to damage someone's reputation.
  Quotations
  Peter Parker: Spider-Man wasn't trying to attack the city, he was trying to save it. That's slander.J. Jonah Jameson: It is not! I resent that! Slander is spoken. In print, it's libel.
  2002, Spider-Man
2. (uncountable) The act or tort of displaying such a statement publicly.
3. (countable) Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
4. (law, countable) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of their cause of action, and of the relief they seek.
  Quotations
  These provisions of law being in force, the steamer Rio Grande, owned, as was alleged, by persons in Mexico, being in the port of Mobile, in the Southern District of Alabama, certain materialmen, on the 26th of November, 1867, filed separate libels against her in the district court for the said district.
  1873, United States Supreme Court, The Rio Grande, 86 U.S. 178,179
5. (countable) A brief writing of any kind, especially a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.
verb
third-person singular simple present libels, present participle (UK) libelling or (US) libeling, simple past and past participle (UK) libelled or (US) libeled
1. To defame (someone), especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel.
  Quotations
  But vvhat ſo pure, vvhich envious tongues vvill ſpare? / Some vvicked vvits have libell'd all the fair.
  1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, page 203
2. To proceed against (goods, a ship, etc.) by filing a libel claim.

Definition of "libel"

libel

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations