Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who spreads malicious gossip.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who trades in gossip. A person who collects and disseminates rumors.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who spreads malicious gossip

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

scandal +‎ -monger

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Examples

  • The gossip, the busybody, the scandalmonger is the worst pest that infests the average town and village.

    Practical Ethics William De Witt Hyde 1887

  • The scandalmonger is the murderer of reputations, the destroyer of domestic peace, the insuperable obstacle to the mutual friendliness of neighborhoods.

    Practical Ethics William De Witt Hyde 1887

  • Is there more snark in newspapers, on TV, and even on the internet than there was in the nineteenth century, when "scandalmonger" James Callender and a legion of lesser lights revealed the lurid details, many of them imagined, about Alexander Hamilton's sexual relationship with Maria Reynolds, a married woman, and Thomas Jefferson's child-producing rape of his slave, Sally Hemmings?

    Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler: Juvenal Delinquencies 2009

  • From Mike Wallace, "This 'scandalmonger' was entertained and provoked by Ms. Garment's remarkable catalogue."

    Scandal: The Culture of Mistrust in American Politics 1991

  • She accuses newspaper readers of pouring fuel on media baron and scandalmonger Rupert Murdoch's fire, and then crying help, notably in the unfolding events of phone tapping and computer hacking of celebrities, politicians and common folk.

    Magda Abu-Fadil: Arab Editor Aysha Taryam Slams Indifference Magda Abu-Fadil 2012

  • Celebrity scandalmonger Perez Hilton has described the naked crispbread dancing prowess displayed by the four boys from Borlänge as “one of the best Talent auditions ever.”

    p2pnet World Headlines – April 21, 2009 2009

  • The cast includes a seasoned drunk, a honey-tongued scandalmonger, a veteran who can never quite synchronise lines and moves, and a fretful worrier anxiously seeking the motivation for every piece of comic business.

    Noises Off - review 2011

  • Mrs. Ogle, one of the more important members of Hadley Green society—meaning, one with wealth—and a well-known scandalmonger, had caught him unawares.

    The Year of Living Scandalously Julia London 2010

  • Mrs. Ogle, one of the more important members of Hadley Green society—meaning, one with wealth—and a well-known scandalmonger, had caught him unawares.

    The Year of Living Scandalously Julia London 2010

  • Citizens United, the conservative group headed by notorious Whitewater scandalmonger David Bossie, is distributing hundreds of thousands of DVDs attacking Barack Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers in newspapers in Ohio, Nevada, and Florida this week, a group spokesperson confirms to us.

    Right-Wing Group Distributing Hundreds Of Thousands Of DVDs Attacking Obama In Swing-State Newspapers 2009

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