smear campaign

American  

noun

1. a campaign to tarnish the reputation of a public figure, especially by vilification or innuendo.

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smear campaign Idioms  

1. An attempt to ruin a reputation by slander or vilification, as in This press agent is well known for starting smear campaigns against her clients' major competitors. This phrase was first recorded in 1938 and uses smear in the sense of “an attempt to discredit” or “slander.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smear campaign

In an open letter, signed by more than 150 filmmakers, academics, writers and even a few rabbis, the group denounced “the outrageous smear campaign against our respected colleague Mark Ruffalo.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

The school’s hiring was the primary subject of the faculty smear campaign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

Piker, who has said he was raised Muslim but is non-practicing, called himself a victim of a "coordinated smear campaign" and Islamophobia.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

An online smear campaign accused him of having plagiarized parts of his 2015 doctoral thesis.

From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026

Murky, speculative stuff, a smear campaign on a dead woman.

From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins