discredit
discredit
Definition
dis·credit (dis kred′it)
transitive verb
- to reject as untrue; disbelieve
- to be a reason for disbelieving or distrusting; cast doubt on their earlier lies discredit anything they may say
- to damage the credit or reputation of; disgrace
noun
- absence or loss of belief or trust; disbelief; doubt
- damage to one's reputation; loss of respect or status; disgrace; dishonor
- something that causes disgrace or loss of status
discredit
Synonyms
discredit
Synonyms
discredit
v.
To bring into disrepute
defame, dishonor, cast doubt on, undermine; see censure, depreciate 2, disprove.To doubt
question, disbelieve, distrust; see doubt 2.
discredit
Usage Examples
Object
- critic: After all, she was not protecting a whistleblower, but a senior government official seeking to discredit a critic.
- notion: Now, with hindsight, we can see that the idea was to discredit the very notion of statehood for Chechnya.
- witness: Lawyers commonly discredit a witness by showing some fault or contradiction in their testimony.
- regime: Those senseless blasts beneath the ground do not, as some suggest, discredit that regime.
- theory: Modern science has all but permanently discredited theories of biological racial superiority.
Subject
- scientist: It is not obvious to theorists since this area has been effectively discredited by scientists who regard it as a threat.
- evidence: The idea of a fixed natural rate of unemployment consistent with stable inflation was discredited by the evidence of the 1980s.
Adjective modifier
- eternal: The UN, to its eternal discredit, sat on its hands.
Modifying Another Word
- thoroughly: The evidence that has been produced has been thoroughly discredited [ 2 ] .
- utterly: Utterly discredited, Bacon was forced to change his position by student pressure.
- largely: The doctrine of cohesion appears, therefore, to be largely discredited.
- totally: The latter might be totally discredited without in the least shaking the validity of the principle.
- hugely: There can be no clearer illustration than Labor's hugely discredited waiting list initiative.
- widely: The Stability Pact has been widely discredited by events over the past few years.
Used with why or when
- when: Prominent leaders have come under the searchlight of the media and have been publicly discredited when secret scandals in their lives have been exposed.
Preposition: in
- eye: The general obscurity which still shadows the Ottoman era must ac count for the rest of its discredit in the eyes of modern historians.
Preposition: by
- scientist: It is not obvious to theorists since this area has been effectively discredited by scientists who regard it as a threat.
- association: Your views will be discredited by association with the violence that always happens on a day like today?
- evidence: The idea of a fixed natural rate of unemployment consistent with stable inflation was discredited by the evidence of the 1980s.
Browse dictionary entries near discredit
- Discovery Day
- discovery
- discovert
- discovered
- discover
- discourtesy
- discourteous
- discourse
- discouraging
- discouragement
