malign \muh-LAHYN\,
verb:
1. to speak harmful untruths about; speak evil of; slander; defame: to malign an honorable man.
adjective:
1. evil in effect; pernicious; baleful; injurious: The gloomy house had a malign influence upon her usually good mood.
2. having or showing an evil disposition; malevolent; malicious.
This plan would have succeeded admirably had not the evil star under which I was born, been in the ascendant during that month, and cast its malign influences even into my "unible" larder...
-- Louisa May Alcott, "Hospital Sketches," 1863
But they are proud to have given her to the world, and however much they ridicule and malign her, they want the credit for discovering her talent.
-- Henry Miller, "The Wisdom of the Heart," 1941
Malign entered English in the mid-1300s and has its roots in the Latin malus meaning "evil."
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