libelous

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

adjective (used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign

From libel + -ous.

"It's libelous per se to call a lawyer a shyster." — By Advice of Counsel, Arthur Cheney Train
The article, being libelous, had to be returned as impossible; and I had to renounce my dream of dragging its author into the limelight. — Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw
I hate being asked my age, more than that ... and in fact ... there’s a libelous story going about me, that last week I played robbers with the preparatory boys. — The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

calumniatory, calumnious, defamatory, denigrative, denigrating, denigratory, libellous, slanderous

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