scandal Definition
scan·dal (skan′dəl)
noun
- Christian Theol. unseemly conduct of a religious person that discredits religion or causes moral lapse in another
- any act, person, or thing that offends or shocks moral feelings of the community and leads to disgrace
- a reaction of shame, disgrace, outrage, etc. caused by such an act, person, or thing
- ignominy; disgrace
- malicious gossip; defamatory or slanderous talk
Etymology: altered (infl. by Fr scandale or LL) < ME scandle < OFr escandele < LL(Ec) scandalum, cause for stumbling, temptation < Gr(Ec) skandalon, a snare: see descend
transitive verb -·daled or -·dalled, -·dal·ing or -·dal·ling
- Now Chiefly Dial. to slander
- Obsolete to disgrace
scandal Synonyms
scandal
n.
scandal Usage Examples
Preposition: of
- poverty: However, the real scandal of fuel poverty is the impact on the health of individuals.
- 1980s: That is partly the result of changes made here following the UK's own corporate scandals of the late 1980s.
- homelessness: One such important issue relates to the scandal of homelessness in Wales.
Preposition: that
splash: Liberty mutual does just identify yourself scandal that splashes.
Converse of object
- mis-selling: Clearly, the high profile nature of mortgage endowments and other mis-selling scandals has concentrated the mind of everyone in the financial services industry.
- expose: He was causing a stir among the people as he exposed the sex scandal in Herod's private life.
- uncover: The fact that both Solbes and Schreyer have failed over four years to uncover the scandal is apparently neither here nor there.
- provoke: The publication of these results in the media provoked a national scandal.
Adjective modifier
- match-fixing: First there was the match-fixing scandal among Italian football clubs, which resulted in Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina being relegated.
- mis-selling: Like precipice bonds and with-profits policies before them, target funds may be a mis-selling scandal in the making.
- high-profile: In the light of recent high-profile corporate scandals, there is a new spotlight being put on corporate governance.
- pedophile: In October 1996 he lambasted Belgium's civic institutions for failing to protect the country's children in the wake of a pedophile scandal.
- corporate: There have also been several corporate governance scandals of fashion companies around the world.
- notorious: He joined Drexel Burnham Lambert just months before the notorious junk bond scandals broke.
Noun used with modifier
- mis-selling: They also presided over the pensions mis-selling scandal, at a cost of £ 3 billion.
- marsh: For three distinct the marsh scandal been turned into.
- peerage: The loans for peerages scandal has rocked Tony Blair who was unable to walk unaided last week.
- oil-for-food: Mr Galloway was appearing before a US Senate sub-committee to face questioning over his alleged involvement in the long-running UN oil-for-food program scandal.
- corruption: The last time Italy won the world cup was in the backdrop of a major corruption scandal in Italian football.
- bribery: Any city or county council staff wanting to post bribery scandal information here are very very welcome.
Browse dictionary entries near scandal
- scandal sheet ›
- scandalize ›
- scandalmonger ›
- scandalous ›
- scandalous matter ›
- scandalously ›
- scandent ›
- Scanderbeg ›
- scandia ›
- Scandian ›

