Definition of "scandalous"

Maſters commands come with a power reſiſtleſs / To ſuch as owe them abſolute ſubjection; / And for a life who will not change his purpoſe? / (So mutable are all the ways of men) / Yet this be ſure, in nothing to comply / Scandalous or forbidden in our Law.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 83, lines 415–420

The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the children that way.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […]

These be the scandalous reports of such / As loves not me, and hate my lord too much.

c. 1587 (date written), [Thomas Kyd], The Spanish Tragedie: […] (Fourth Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for T[homas] Pauier, […], published 1602, (please specify the page)

I always disregard gossip--it is generally scandalous, and seldom true.

1887, Marie Corelli, Thelma

The closest Believe gets to scandalous is on the deluxe-edition bonus track “Maria,” a response song to the woman who accused Bieber of fathering her child in 2011.

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 6 August 2020

'Made one quite thankful to get back to the fug, though as a rule I think the way these trains are overheated is something scandalous.'

1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 131