Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The act of detracting or taking away.
- noun A derogatory or damaging comment on a person's character or reputation; disparagement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A withdrawing; a taking away; removal.
- noun The act of disparaging or belittling the reputation or worth of a person, with the view to lessen or lower him in the estimation of others; the act of depreciating the powers or performances of another, from envy or malice.
- noun Synonyms Depreciation, disparagement, slander, calumny, defamation, derogation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A taking away or withdrawing.
- noun The act of taking away from the reputation or good name of another; a lessening or cheapening in the estimation of others; the act of depreciating another, from envy or malice; calumny.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the act of
detracting something, or somethingdetracted - noun a
derogatory ormalicious statement ; adisparagement ,misrepresentation orslander - noun Roman Catholic Church the act of
revealing previously unknownfaults of another person to a third person.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the act of discrediting or detracting from someone's reputation (especially by slander)
- noun a petty disparagement
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The amazing part of the detraction is that a lot of these are the same arguments why weblogs were unnecessary and irrelevant.
Gillmor on Fire 2004
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It would surprise a great many to learn who this person was, but as no detraction is intended, I will dismiss the subject at once.
At Gettysburg, or, What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle: A True Narrative 1889
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Only there is this difference, that as all are more forcibly inclined to ill than good, they are much apter to exceed in detraction than in praises.
Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple (1652-54) 1888
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The other detraction from the pleasures of the evening, consisted in the dark uninhabited remoteness of the large chamber, from which we witnessed the exhibition; a flight of dark stairs led up to it; a few pieces of ambiguous lumber were its only furniture, and even by daylight, I did not pass the foot of that flight without a response from my nerves.
Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor 1874
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In after times the American people will cherish his memory as a precious legacy, nor will they suffer any detraction from the merit of his character or his services.
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Having him as more of a central character in the film took away the edge, he became more on an ‘everyman’, a detraction from the character they’re trying to build … the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Let me quickly address, Iron Man 2 is awesome and serves the franchise well, but I also left the theatre with the feeling that the entire thing was a big set-up of the forth-coming Avengers film.
REVIEW: The Super Ensemble of IRON MAN 2 « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2010
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Now, contumely, as you will remark, does not seek primarily to deprive one of a good name; which it nearly always succeeds in doing, and this is called detraction; but its object is to prevent your good name from getting its desert of respect, your character supposedly remaining intact.
Explanation of Catholic Morals A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals
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If you have exposed some crime that he really committed, your sin is called detraction; if you accuse him of one he did not commit, your sin is calumny; and if you maliciously circulate these reports to injure his character, your sin is slander.
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine Thomas L. Kinkead
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Hmm, Hillary's experience and popularity a "detraction" from Sen. Obama's election run?
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I sound like a broken record, but this kind of detraction from our one goal in November is so typical of some so called "Democrats", it will be hard enough to deal with the Republicans and now this.
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