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A taking away or withdrawing. [Obs.] The detraction of the eggs of the said wild fowl. Bacon.

To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (as absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent). Spenser.

Secret slander; detraction. Backbiting, and bearing of false witness. Piers Plowman.

ciously made or reported, to the injury of another; malicious misrepresentation; slander; detraction. "Infamouse calumnies." Motley. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Shak.

on, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another; slander; detraction; calumny; aspersion.

Detraction; depreciation. [Obs.] To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme, For depravation. Shak.

The act of derogating, partly repealing, or lessening in value; disparagement; detraction; depreciation; -- followed by of, from, or to. I hope it is no derogation to the Christian religion. Locke. He counted it no derogation of his manhood to be seen to weep. F. W. Robertson.

Containing detraction; detractory. [R.] Johnson.

ing opinion or insinuation; diminution of value; dishonor; indignity; reproach; disgrace; detraction; -- commonly with to. It ought to be no disparagement to a star that it is not the sun. South. Imitation is a disparagement and a degradation in a Christian minister. I. Taylor.

The act of dispraising; detraction; blame censure; reproach; disparagement. Dryden. In praise and in dispraise the same. Tennyson.

ion. Shall names that made yuor city the glory of the earth be mentioned with obloquy and detraction Addison.

Slander; detraction; calumny. [Obs.] Barrow.

Resemblance to Zoilus in style or manner; carping criticism; detraction. Bring candid eyes the perusal of men's works, and let not Zoilism or detraction blast well-intended labors. Sir T. Browne.