scandalscan‧dal /ˈskændl/ ●●○ noun 
It caused quite a scandal when he left his wife. The college has recently been involved in a drugs scandal. He has been at the centre of a political scandal. a major scandal involving the government a series of financial scandals a sex scandal that ruined his reputation They had already left the country when the scandal broke.2[uncountable] talk about dishonest or immoral things that famous or important people are believed to have done: The magazine is full of gossip and scandal.3be a scandal British English spoken to be very shocking or unacceptable: The price of petrol these days is an absolute scandal!COLLOCATIONSverbscause a scandal· The vicar caused a scandal by having an affair with a young woman.be involved in a scandal· A senior government official is involved in a political scandal.be implicated in a scandal (=be suspected of being involved)· One of the ministers implicated in the scandal resigned.be at the centre of a scandal British English, be at the center of a scandal American English· The banker at the centre of the scandal has disappeared.uncover/expose a scandal· The scandal was uncovered by a journalist.a scandal breaks (=becomes known)· When the scandal broke in 1990, it forced the resignation of the bank's chairman.a scandal erupts (=becomes known with serious effects)· A major scandal erupted in Washington last year.the scandal surrounding something· They had tried to protect the prime minster from the scandal surrounding the arms sales.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + scandala big/major scandal· The president was forced to resign following a major scandal.a financial scandal (=involving money)· He was suspected of involvement in a major financial scandal.a political scandal (=involving politicians)· The Health Secretary now finds himself at the centre of a political scandal.a corruption scandal (=involving illegal payments)· a major police corruption scandala sex scandal· There are rumours of a sex scandal involving senior government ministers.a public scandal (=one that people know about and discuss)· The award was soon the centre of a public scandal.the Watergate/Whitewater etc scandal (=the scandal involving a particular place, organization etc)· The name of Richard Nixon will forever be associated with the Watergate scandal.the worst scandal (=the biggest or most shocking)· Total losses resulting from India's worst financial scandal amounted to Rs31,000 million.phrasesa hint/whiff of scandal (=the suggestion that someone may be involved in a scandal)· He vowed that no hint of scandal would ever be attached to him.
WORD ORIGINscandal
Origin:
1100-1200 Late Latin scandalum ‘offense’, from Greek skandalonEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- a financial scandal
- A major scandal erupted in November 1989, with the discovery that cattle in the UK and Netherlands had been given food contaminated with lead.
- a sex scandal involving senior politicians
- Have you heard the latest scandal? Mick Green's been arrested for bribery and corruption.
- He resigned a few days after the scandal broke.
- The scandal over the deal forced the corporation's president to resign in disgrace.
- The administration has been plagued by scandal and controversy.
- The newspapers only seem interested in gossip and scandal.
- the worst spy scandal in US history
- And she will do anything to avoid another royal scandal - even if it means not seeing Charles while speculation persists.
- Another well-documented scandal has been the sale of unsuitable or dangerous medicines in the Third World.
- But he was a bit of a womaniser and got mixed up in some scandal.
- He vowed that no hint of scandal would ever be attached to him.
- The funding scandal now looks set to run and run.
- There were a number of corporate scandals, mostly involving illegal political funding.
- What I did not anticipate was that this would prove to be a matter as much of intrigue and scandal as of science.
Longman Language Activatornews that people tell each other
things that people tell each other about something that happened recently: · I've got some news for you.· That's great news!news of: · There hasn't been any news of him since he left home.news about: · Have you heard the news about Carole?news that: · He brought the news that their father was seriously ill.somebody's news (=what someone has been doing recently): · Sit down and tell me all your news.good/bad news: · Good news! Ian passed his driving test!· Well, the bad news is that the train is delayed by an hour.have good/bad news for somebody: · I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.hear (the/my etc) news: · Have you heard the news? Sara's going to have a baby.spread the news (=tell a lot of people about it): · They're going to appoint a new chairman - spread the news!break the news to somebody (=tell someone something that they did not know, especially something bad): · I just don't know how to break the news to Sherri. She'll be so disappointed.the news breaks (=when people hear some news): · Since the news broke, hundreds of people have called with messages of support.
spoken the most recent news: · Have you heard the latest? Phil's going out with Judy!the latest about: · Oh, I haven't told you the latest about my car!the latest on: · What's the latest on the election?
the most recent changes in an important situation - used especially in news programmes on television or radio: · The President said today that he was watching developments in Asia with great interest.· There are no new developments to report at this stage.further developments (=more developments): · We'll be keeping you informed of any further developments throughout the day.
shocking facts that are made public about someone's behaviour: · The newspapers only seem interested in gossip and scandal.a scandal breaks (=becomes known): · He resigned a few days after the scandal broke.sex/drug/financial etc scandal: · a sex scandal involving senior politicians· the worst spy scandal in US history
rules of acceptable behaviour British /rumor American information which is passed from one person to another and which may or may not be true, especially information about people's private lives or about something that a government, company etc has done or is planning to do: · The truth finally came out after months of rumour and gossip.rumour about/of: · What's this rumour about you and Vince Foster?· There were rumours of bombings in the northern part of the country.rumour that: · The band denied the rumours that they may be splitting up.hear a rumour: · Have you heard the rumour about him and his secretary?spread a rumour (=tell other people a rumour): · Someone's been spreading nasty rumours about me.it's only a rumour: · I don't think he's going to resign. It's only a rumour.rumour has it that (=there is a rumour that): · Rumour has it that there will be major job cuts in the new year.
if there is speculation about something, especially about something that is happening in politics or public life, a lot of people are talking about it and trying to guess what the truth is - used especially in news reports: speculation about: · There was a great deal of speculation about a possible merger involving Belgium's largest banks.speculation that: · Washington was buzzing with speculation that the senator would resign.amid speculation: · Share prices increased amid speculation that the Bank of England would cut interest rates.prompt/fuel etc speculation (=start or increase speculation): · The news fuelled speculation that the President's health had become significantly worse.pure/wild/idle speculation (=speculation that is very unlikely to be true): · Reports that the couple are getting a divorce have been dismissed as wild speculation.
information which people tell each other about other people's private lives, and which may or may not be true, especially when this is done in an unkind or disapproving way: · I got back from my vacation eager to hear all the latest gossip.gossip about: · The conversation began to drift towards gossip about their colleagues.exchange gossip (with somebody) (=tell each other gossip): · Mrs Busby was always ready to exchange local gossip with the customers who came into her shop.gossip column (=part of a newspaper that contains gossip about famous people): · Recently her name has showed up a lot in gossip columns.malicious gossip (=unkind and untrue gossip that someone spreads deliberately): · I don't believe Liz had an affair with him. That's just malicious gossip.
when something immoral or shocking happens, often involving important people, organizations, or events, and it becomes known by the general public: · Have you heard the latest scandal? Mick Green's been arrested for bribery and corruption.scandal over: · The scandal over the deal forced the corporation's president to resign in disgrace.a scandal breaks/erupts: · A major scandal erupted in November 1989, with the discovery that cattle in the UK and Netherlands had been given food contaminated with lead.
information or news that you think might be true, although you do not have any definite proof: reports of: · The government has promised to investigate reports of police corruption.unconfirmed reports (=reports that have not yet been proved to be true): · We are getting unconfirmed reports of a gas explosion in downtown Los Angeles.
what people tell each other about other people's personal lives, especially about their sexual relationships: · In those days there was always talk if two people lived together without being married.just talk (=a rumour that is unlikely to be true): · "They say he's having an affair with a colleague at work." "That's just talk."
something that you have been told, or that you have heard only indirectly, but which you have no way of proving to be either true or untrue: · All the accounts were based on hearsay rather than eye-witness reports.· Judge Wagenbach ruled that the statement was inadmissible as evidence, after Mr. Lamb's attourney argued that it was hearsay.rely on hearsay: · A factual book is a lot better than relying on hearsay from friends.hearsay evidence (=evidence given in a court of law by someone who did not directly see something happen): · The court is not allowed to admit hearsay evidence.
if you hear some news or information on or through the grapevine , someone else tells it to you unofficially, often in conversation: · "Who told you I was moving house?" "Oh, I just heard it on the grapevine."· Freddie was distressed when, through the grapevine, he heard of Liza's marriage.the school/hospital/industry etc grapevine: · According to the high-school grapevine, Kelly wants me to ask her out on a date.
if someone or something is rumoured to be doing something, be happening, be in a particular condition etc, that is what you have heard people saying: · It's a five star hotel and rumored to be the best in Europe.· The hospital is rumoured to be heading for closure, after the government's announcement on cuts.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYverbs doping offencesCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
· The vicar caused a scandal by having an affair with a young woman.
· A senior government official is involved in a political scandal.
(=be suspected of being involved)· One of the ministers implicated in the scandal resigned.
British English, be at the center of a scandal American English· The banker at the centre of the scandal has disappeared.
· The scandal was uncovered by a journalist.
(=becomes known)· When the scandal broke in 1990, it forced the resignation of the bank's chairman.
(=becomes known with serious effects)· A major scandal erupted in Washington last year.
· They had tried to protect the prime minster from the scandal surrounding the arms sales.
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + scandal· The president was forced to resign following a major scandal.
(=involving money)· He was suspected of involvement in a major financial scandal.
(=involving politicians)· The Health Secretary now finds himself at the centre of a political scandal.
(=involving illegal payments)· a major police corruption scandal
· There are rumours of a sex scandal involving senior government ministers.
(=one that people know about and discuss)· The award was soon the centre of a public scandal.
(=the scandal involving a particular place, organization etc)· The name of Richard Nixon will forever be associated with the Watergate scandal.
(=the biggest or most shocking)· Total losses resulting from India's worst financial scandal amounted to Rs31,000 million.
phrases (=the suggestion that someone may be involved in a scandal)· He vowed that no hint of scandal would ever be attached to him.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES doping offences· The loss of this basic perspective produces the worst problems and the biggest scandal.
· Melancia, who had been appointed to the post in mid-1987, had been implicated in a financial scandal in February 1990.· His wife did not help, with her loquacity and her relatives' involvement in major financial scandals.· But the succession of financial scandals involving the president in recent months has discredited the office of president.· But he was also involved in a high-profile financial scandal and a messy divorce.· At the same time, two financial scandals have damaged the government's credibility.· Yet the world's leading democracies are all mired in financial scandals.· That post bellum decade was ushered in by financial scandals, bank panics and a restructuring of the financial system.· Recent financial scandals involving the use of tax havens have also led to calls for anti-tax haven legislation.
· If the Radnor Walk horror becomes public it would be the greatest scandal in the history of the Service.· Unaccountably, the Opposition have not requested a statement on one of the great scandals involving Robert Maxwell.
· But the worst of the scandal is that all the wrong conclusions are being drawn from it.· Wednesday in the aftermath of one of the worst military scandals to erupt in public here in recent history.· Lord knows, there are worse scandals that have unfolded behind those stately white columns.
· She prided herself on her ability to sift through the most innocent conversations and turn them into major scandals.· Four of the five saw their administrations marred by major scandals.· Gone, it seems, are the days when rock stars caused major scandals by being caught with dangerous drugs.· No president since Nixon leaves office so synonymous with a major scandal.· His wife did not help, with her loquacity and her relatives' involvement in major financial scandals.· Throughout its history, the Federal Reserve has handled billions of dollars a day, cleanly and without a major scandal.· Political contributions that would have been major scandals in the United States have generated only minor controversies.
· One incident last September became a national scandal.
· Royal secrets, political scandal and life after Norm - the not so Everage housewife-turned-megastar from Down Under gets intimate.· Watergate, the political scandal that so motivated these young people, is 25 years old this year.· However, a political scandal forced his resignation on July 6.· Recent political scandals have tended to fall into the same dreary pattern: shocking accusation.· Basically, the public has grown weary of a party that has seen its share of political sleaze scandals.· As the Whitewater mess gets even messier, the Clintons seem to have accomplished something new in the annals of political scandals.
· The evidence is, in the case of corporate crime, that nothing much happens by way of public scandal and social ruin.· Personal secrets have turned into public issues and, with increasing frequency, public scandals.· Only the occasional public scandal, such as the attempt to sell the Mappa Mundi at Hereford Cathedral, disturbs the calm.· He couldn't afford a public scandal amongst the Party leadership.· If there's any public scandal about our marriage it will destroy me and all my work.
· The evidence of recent insider dealer scandals refutes the strong form of efficiency.· Using inside knowledge gained from twenty years in the industry she shows how recent scandals could have been avoided.
NOUN· Tomás Rodríguez were currently under investigation for their part in bribery scandals involving air force contracts.· This should last until bribery scandals had been investigated and proper environmental standards enforced, they said.
· A dozen of the company's senior executives have been caught up in the country's ever-widening corruption scandal.· That's why these corruption scandals deserve our attention.· The government has been plagued by repeated corruption scandals.· However, the most disturbing corruption scandals have concerned not politicians but sportsmen.· One idea is to revive a bill put forward in 1991, in the wake of a previous corruption scandal.· Air Force corruption scandal Brig. -Gen.
· This is the second time the college has been involved in a drugs scandal.· In a night of frantic desperation, rumours of the drug scandal were leaking by the hour.· No wonder so many sports fans blame television and corporate cash for the erosion of amateurism and the endless drug scandals.· All the competitors, it seemed, had backwards baseball caps and were embroiled in drug scandals.· Despite the drug scandal, Britain is doing well at Barcelona.
· In the Watergate scandal, obstruction of justice was number one in the articles of impeachment approved by the House Judiciary Committee.· To them, the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation is distant history.· Most observers believed that he caved in only because of his weakened political position due to the Watergate scandal.· Congress has not passed comprehensive campaign finance legislation since 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal.· It attacks the fundamental flaws and loopholes in the campaign finance regulatory system adopted in the wake of the Watergate scandal.· But unbeknown to the public, he already was involved in covering up the Watergate scandal.
VERB· Those parliamentary gossips still in London enduring the boredom of the silly season waited in happy expectation for the scandal to break.· Casey died of a brain tumor before the scandal broke.· Ever since the scandal broke, the hunt has been on for scapegoats.· He was summarily dismissed from his job and the scandal broke on the front pages of Britain's national press.· Could the actor really be that stupid, with the scandal breaking that morning and all?· In the last days of 1990 a new scandal broke.· For some days after the scandal broke, the press could find out nothing about him.
· My leaving Lula caused quite a scandal in Berlin; but that period with her could have been deadly for me.· To introduce too many changes, he argued, would cause scandal among the faithful.
· Melancia, who had been appointed to the post in mid-1987, had been implicated in a financial scandal in February 1990.· Members of all political parties, including the ex-Communists, are implicated in the scandal.
· This is the second time the college has been involved in a drugs scandal.· They have become involved in debilitating scandals and disastrous adventures following election victories.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
1[countable] an event in which someone, especially someone important, behaves in a bad way that shocks people: - A bug for efficiency, he felt that the waste of money and effort on doomed irrigation ventures was a scandal.
- A free for all was a scandal.
- Employment training in Britain is a scandal and is often run by Government-appointed has-beens from industry accountable to no-one.
- For the first Christians to claim this as the heart of their faith was a scandal of the first order.
- I mean the wages are a scandal, aren't they?
- Like the poll tax, the consequences will be a scandal.
- The marriage was a scandal in Seoul.
- The Shadow Agriculture Minister says privatisation would be a scandal and could threaten jobs in the timber industry.
It caused quite a scandal when he left his wife. The college has recently been involved in a drugs scandal. He has been at the centre of a political scandal. a major scandal involving the government a series of financial scandals a sex scandal that ruined his reputation They had already left the country when the scandal broke.2[uncountable] talk about dishonest or immoral things that famous or important people are believed to have done: The magazine is full of gossip and scandal.3be a scandal British English spoken to be very shocking or unacceptable: The price of petrol these days is an absolute scandal!COLLOCATIONSverbscause a scandal· The vicar caused a scandal by having an affair with a young woman.be involved in a scandal· A senior government official is involved in a political scandal.be implicated in a scandal (=be suspected of being involved)· One of the ministers implicated in the scandal resigned.be at the centre of a scandal British English, be at the center of a scandal American English· The banker at the centre of the scandal has disappeared.uncover/expose a scandal· The scandal was uncovered by a journalist.a scandal breaks (=becomes known)· When the scandal broke in 1990, it forced the resignation of the bank's chairman.a scandal erupts (=becomes known with serious effects)· A major scandal erupted in Washington last year.the scandal surrounding something· They had tried to protect the prime minster from the scandal surrounding the arms sales.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + scandala big/major scandal· The president was forced to resign following a major scandal.a financial scandal (=involving money)· He was suspected of involvement in a major financial scandal.a political scandal (=involving politicians)· The Health Secretary now finds himself at the centre of a political scandal.a corruption scandal (=involving illegal payments)· a major police corruption scandala sex scandal· There are rumours of a sex scandal involving senior government ministers.a public scandal (=one that people know about and discuss)· The award was soon the centre of a public scandal.the Watergate/Whitewater etc scandal (=the scandal involving a particular place, organization etc)· The name of Richard Nixon will forever be associated with the Watergate scandal.the worst scandal (=the biggest or most shocking)· Total losses resulting from India's worst financial scandal amounted to Rs31,000 million.phrasesa hint/whiff of scandal (=the suggestion that someone may be involved in a scandal)· He vowed that no hint of scandal would ever be attached to him.