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View synonyms for smear campaign

smear campaign

noun

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


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Idioms and Phrases

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

The move made her the victim of a vicious smear campaign by Thutmose, but her legacy is both more complicated and more interesting than a simple power play.

From Ozy

A vicious Twitter smear campaign against the Harry Potter author may have been the work of secret agents, says one British pol.

Alinejad says that in her work she had been imprisoned, physically attacked, and the victim of a smear campaign.

As a result, The Net Party found themselves on the ugly side of an all-out smear campaign.

Conservatives have also twisted themselves in knots to present themselves as victims of a smear campaign.

But the practice of the Oscar smear campaign is nothing new.

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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.

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