aspersion

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cast aspersions

To talk negatively or unflatteringly about someone or something. I'm sorry to cast aspersions on Julie, but her work ethic is really terrible. She hasn't handed one assignment in on time! Bill says that he doesn't want to cast aspersions on anyone, but he still talks badly about us all the time!
See also: aspersion, cast

cast aspersions on (someone or something)

To talk negatively or unflatteringly about someone or something. I'm sorry to cast aspersions on Julie, but her work ethic is really terrible. She hasn't handed one assignment in on time. Bill says that he doesn't want to cast aspersions on anyone, but he still talks badly about us all the time!
See also: aspersion, cast, on

cast aspersions on someone

to make a rude and insulting remark. I resent your casting aspersions on my brother and his ability! It is rude to cast aspersions on people in general.
See also: aspersion, cast, on

cast aspersions, to

To make a derogatory or highly critical remark, either fairly or, more often, unfairly. An older meaning of the verb “to asperse” is to sprinkle or scatter, and “aspersion” itself once meant a shower or spray. The full phrase is newer, but we find the same meaning in Sheridan’s play, The Rivals (1775), in which Mrs. Malaprop complains bitterly of “an attack upon my language! . . . an aspersion upon my parts of speech” (3:3).
See also: cast
References in periodicals archive ?
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The first episode is called Beast In Show and was recorded at a county fair, where a Shetland pony boasts about having three girlfriends and a chicken casts aspersions on the quality of the duck eggs.
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That number may have been surpassed in 2004 alone, when in addition to the cases listed above, six reporters were found in contempt of court for refusing to name sources who cast aspersions on former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee.
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And if we could continue, even before the news spreads beyond the scene of the tomb, already the naysayers step in to cast aspersions on the story.
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Safdar Abbasi accused Zafar of being a ''turncoat'' and the minister retorted with an abusive word casting aspersions on the character of the senator and his wife, Nahid Khan, who is a member of the National Assembly.
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To the rest of Europe, Britain has sometimes seemed an awkward member of the club, carping about the rules, resisting change and casting aspersions on everyone else.
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Some Western diplomats have cast aspersions on the directorate's performance on intelligence matters.
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It is 2002 and it is widely held that it is no longer legitimate to print stereotypical aspersions regarding Jews, Mexicans, African-Americans, homosexuals, etc.
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