obloquy
/ˈɒbləkwi
/noun [mass noun]
1Strong public condemnation: he endured years of contempt and obloquy...
- I know of no government that would risk public ire and obloquy by attempting to tax that ‘imputed income.’
- I can't exactly say that I know the man, but on the occasions that I have met him I have been very struck by the difference between his manner and the amazing volleys of obloquy and abuse that have been flung at him.
- Jackson has spent his last three albums in a spitting rage about perceived harassment, character assassination and general obloquy.
Synonyms
vilification, opprobrium, vituperation, condemnation, castigation, denunciation, abuse, criticism, censure, flak, defamation, denigration, disparagement, derogation, slander, revilement, reviling, calumny, calumniation, execration, excoriation, lambasting, upbraiding, bad press, character assassination, attack, invective, libel, insults, aspersions
informal mud-slinging, bad-mouthing, tongue-lashing
British informal stick, verbal, slagging off
archaic contumely
rare animadversion, objurgation
1.1Disgrace, especially that brought about by public condemnation: conduct to which no more obloquy could reasonably attach...
- The person who finally managed to bring obloquy to the ‘science’ of eugenics was of course Adolf Hitler.
- Sufis often flirted with public obloquy and social danger, as if to prove that their love of God was wholly disinterested, uninfluenced by, indeed, contemptuous of, the social approval sought by the outwardly pious.
- The two motives to which I refer are poverty and fear of social obloquy.
Synonyms
disgrace, dishonour, shame, discredit, stigma, humiliation, loss of face, ignominy, odium, opprobrium, disfavour, disrepute, ill repute, infamy, notoriety, scandal, stain
rare disesteem
Origin
Late Middle English: from late Latin obloquium 'contradiction', from Latin obloqui, from ob- 'against' + loqui 'speak'.