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asperse. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
asperse, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
asperse in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
asperse you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin aspersus, past participle of aspergere.
Pronunciation
Verb
asperse (third-person singular simple present asperses, present participle aspersing, simple past and past participle aspersed)
- To sprinkle or scatter (liquid or dust).
2004, Derek Walcott, The Prodigal, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, page 102:a hand in San Marco's font / aspersed him with foul canal water
- To falsely or maliciously charge someone.
- Synonym: slander
1710 April 29 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [pseudonym; Joseph Addison; Richard Steele], “Tuesday, April 18, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 160; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, , London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.; , 1822, →OCLC, page 409:It hath always been my way to baffle reproach with silence; though I cannot but observe the disingenuous proceedings of this gentleman, who is not content to asperse my writings, but hath wounded, through my sides, those eminent and worthy citizens, Mr. John Morphew, and Mr. Bernard Lintot.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 8, Chapter 8, pp. 126-127,
- This is indeed a most aggravating Circumstance, which attends unjustly depriving Men of their Reputation; for a Man who is Conscious of having an ill Character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him; but ought rather to despise those that affect his Conversation, unless where a perfect Intimacy must have convinced them that their Friend’s Character hath been falsely and injuriously aspersed.
1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 32, in Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, page 394:If any one had taxed him with the vice, he would have indignantly repelled the accusation, and conceived himself unworthily aspersed.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
to falsely charge another
Translations to be checked
Anagrams
Italian
Etymology 1
Verb
asperse
- third-person singular past historic of aspergere
Etymology 2
Participle
asperse f pl
- feminine plural of asperso
Anagrams
Latin
Participle
asperse
- vocative masculine singular of aspersus