scurrilous
Americanadjective
-
grossly or obscenely abusive.
a scurrilous attack on the mayor.
- Synonyms:
- offensive, insulting, vituperative
-
characterized by or using low buffoonery; coarsely jocular or derisive.
a scurrilous jest.
- Synonyms:
- vulgar
adjective
-
grossly or obscenely abusive or defamatory
-
characterized by gross or obscene humour
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scurrilous
Explanation
If something is scurrilous, it's meant to offend. Scurrilous rumors can give you a bad reputation, and scurrilous stories sell tabloid magazines. If you say something scurrilous about someone, your intentions are bad: you mean to damage their reputation or insult them (or quite possibly both). Writing an article for the school newspaper in which you claim that your math teacher has a secret life as a circus clown could be seen as a scurrilous attack, unless she proudly moonlights entertaining kids with her juggling skills. This adjective comes from the Latin scurrilis, "buffoonlike."
Vocabulary lists containing scurrilous
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Scarlet Letter
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A Doll's House
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Scurrilous posts can go viral in a snap.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2018
Scurrilous poems did the rounds, including an exceptionally unpleasant piece of work called The Un-sex’d Females.
From The Guardian • Oct. 5, 2015
Scurrilous con artists have been known to represent gold- plated tungsten ingots as pure gold and sell them to the greedy at prices much below gold value but deservedly far above the cost of tungsten.
From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015
Scurrilous paperback books about both candidates have become bestsellers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Scurrilous, skur′ril-us, adj. using scurrility or language befitting a vulgar buffoon: indecent: vile: vulgar: opprobrious: grossly abusive.—adjs.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
