DISCREDIT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Discredit

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/dɪskrˈɛdət/ Listen

verb

Discredit v. t. (past & past part. discredited; pres. part. discrediting)

1.

To refuse credence to; not to accept as true; to disbelieve; as, the report is discredited.

2.

To deprive of credibility; to destroy confidence or trust in; to cause disbelief in the accuracy or authority of. "An occasion might be given to the... papists of discrediting our common English Bible."

3.

To deprive of credit or good repute; to bring reproach upon; to make less reputable; to disgrace. "He.... least discredits his travels who returns the same man he went."

noun

Discredit n.

1.

The act of discrediting or disbelieving, or the state of being discredited or disbelieved; as, later accounts have brought the story into discredit.

2.

Hence, some degree of dishonor or disesteem; ill repute; reproach; applied to persons or things. "It is the duty of every Christian to be concerned for the reputation or discredit his life may bring on his profession."

Synonyms: Disesteem; disrepute; dishonor; disgrace; ignominy; scandal; disbelief; distrust.

See images of 'Discredit'

Etymology of 'Discredit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Discredit" Quotes from Famous Books

... brought him into contact with a new set of acquaintances, conscious of political destinies. They were amiable, hard young men, almost affectedly unaffected; they breakfasted before dawn to get in a day's hunting, and they saw to it that Benham's manifest determination not to discredit himself did not lead to his breaking his neck. Their bodies were beautifully tempered, and their minds were as flabby as Prothero's body. Among them were such men as Lord Breeze and Peter Westerton, and that current set of Corinthians who supposed themselves to be resuscitating ...

— The Research Magnificent • H. G. Wells

... but he was a degraded scoundrel, after all. He was educated and brought up without regard to expense, but he always displayed low tastes, and, had he lived, would have brought discredit on the name he bore. He was a thorn in the side of the Duke and Duchess, and I believe that they felt great relief when he died of brain fever, brought on by a drunken debauch. His parents, or those whom he supposed to be such, were present at his death-bed, for they had learned ...

— The Champdoce Mystery • Emile Gaboriau

... at his principal with the air of a man profoundly puzzled, and Rawdon felt with a kind of rage that his prey was escaping him. He did not believe a word of the story, and yet, how discredit ...

— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Modern critical methods were undreamed of in the days of our hagiographer, who wrote, moreover, for edification only in a credulous age. Most of the historical documents of the period are in a greater or less degree uncritical but that does not discredit their testimony however much it may confuse their editors. It can be urged moreover that two mutually incompatible genealogies of the saint are given. The genealogy given by MacFirbisigh seems in fact to disagree in almost every ...

— Lives of SS. Declan and Mochuda • Anonymous

... Committee. While in their hands he seemed filled with astonishment at his own achievements, and such spontaneous expressions as naturally flowed from his heart thrilled and amazed his new found friends, and abundant satisfaction was afforded, that Samuel Washington Johnson would do no discredit to his fugitive comrades in Canada. So the Committee gladly aided ...

— The Underground Railroad • William Still

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