Dictionary

mudslinging en · NOUN

Etymology

From mud + slinging.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Casting aspersions with intent to discredit.
   • The campaign degenerated into mutual mudslinging, each candidate trying to tarnish the other's reputation and looking bad in the process.
   • The defections have set off furious mudslinging, as each side has cranked up its spin machine to portray its version of the story. 2026 January 22, Cade Metz, Kalley Huang, Mike Isaac, “The A.I. Start-Up Soap Opera Riveting Silicon Valley”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • Some persons are sincerely incapable of understanding that to denounce mud slinging does not mean the endorsement of whitewashing; and both the interested individuals who need whitewashing and those others who practice mud slinging like to encourage such confusion of ideas. 1906, Theodore Roosevelt, The Man with the Muck Rake:
   • The mudslinging didn't help expand the media coverage of the issues; all that was reported was the mudslingings.

Forms

Deriveds

mudsling

Relateds

mud fight · throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick

Translations (9)

es injuriamiento (casting aspersions to discredit) · hu sárdobálás (casting aspersions to discredit) · fi loanheitto (casting aspersions to discredit) · el λασπολογία (casting aspersions to discredit) · fa لجنپراکنی (casting aspersions to discredit) · tr çamur atmak (casting aspersions to discredit) · tr bok atmak (casting aspersions to discredit) · sv pajkastning (casting aspersions to discredit) · de Schlammschlacht (casting aspersions to discredit)