Definition of "scandal"

scandal

/ˈskændəl/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural scandals
1. An incident or event that disgraces or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved.
  Quotations
  O, what a scandal is it to our crown,That two such noble peers as ye should jar!
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]
  It would not be fair to record the adventures of Father Brown, without admitting that he was once involved in a grave scandal.
  1933 November, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesteron, “The Scandal of Father Brown”, in The Scandal of Father Brown, London, Toronto, Ont.: Cassell and Company, published 1935, page 1
  Well, yes, a couple of leaks are all very well, but it takes more than that... A big scandal perhaps. A political scandal. Or a scandal about something people really understand: Sex... or money.
  1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1
  But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
  2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎
2. Damage to one's reputation.
  Quotations
  Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […].
  1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]
3. Widespread moral outrage, indignation, as over an offence to decency.
4. (theology) Religious discredit; an act or behaviour which brings a religion into discredit.
5. (theology) Something which hinders acceptance of religious ideas or behaviour; a stumbling-block or offense.
6. Defamatory talk; gossip, slander.
  Quotations
  Scandal at Barchester affirmed that had it not been for the beauty of his daughter, Mr. Harding would have remained a minor canon; but here probably Scandal lied, as she so often does; for even as a minor canon no one had been more popular among his reverend brethren in the close, than Mr. Harding; and Scandal, before she had reprobated Mr. Harding for being made precentor by his friend the bishop, had loudly blamed the bishop for having so long omitted to do something for his friend Mr. Harding.
  1855, Anthony Trollope, “chapter 1”, in The Warden
7. (Philippines, colloquial) amateur or homemade pornography.
verb
third-person singular simple present scandals, present participle scandalling or scandaling, simple past and past participle scandalled or scandaled
1. (obsolete) To treat opprobriously; to defame; to slander.
  Quotations
  I do fawn on men and hug them hard And after scandal them.
  1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
2. (obsolete) To scandalize; to offend.
  Quotations
  A propensity to scandal may partly proceed from an inability to distinguish the proper objects of censure
  1855, Robert Potts, Liber Cantabrigiensis

Definition of "scandal"

scandal

noun

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verb

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