Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Libelous \Li"bel*ous\ (l[imac]"b[e^]l*[u^]s), a. Containing or involving a libel; defamatory; containing that which exposes some person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule; as, a libelous pamphlet. [Written also libellous.] -- Li"bel*ous*ly, adv.
Wiktionary
a. (context British spelling English) (alternative spelling of libelous English)
WordNet
adj. (used of statements) harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign [syn: calumniatory, calumnious, defamatory, denigrative, denigrating, denigratory, libelous, slanderous]
Usage examples of "libellous".
He does not intend to publish a libellous pamphlet upon you, but to accuse you before the courts, alleging that he wants reparation for the wrongs you have done his person, his honour, and his life, for he says you are killing him by a slow poison.
Though the inference was there, nothing libellous was printed, and now the police press officer was busy fending off other journalists, but he had confirmed that a woman, Louise Widdows, had been found dead in her cottage and that the police were treating it as a murder enquiry.
James Hansard and others, for the publication by them, under an order of this house, of certain papers containing libellous matter upon John Joseph Stockdale, and that judgment has been obtained, and execution issued by due course of law against the said James Hansard and others in such action: it is expedient that the said James Hansard and others be indemnified against all costs and damages by them sustained in respect of such action.
Some have made libellous verses in abuse of them, and no wonder if songs were made on the translators of the Psalms, seeing drunkards made them on David the author thereof.
Da Ponte precedes this account with a libellous narrative of Casanova's relations with the Marquise d'Urfe, even stating that Casanova stole from her the jewels stolen in turn by Costa, but, as M.
Actually, the vaudeville-loving President would probably have enjoyed very much the highly suggestive but never absolutely libellous story of the young showgirl for whom the fifty-year-old Hearst had, if not forsaken his wife, abandoned her to the rigors of respectable domesticity while he squired, without cigarettes, alcohol or bad language, his chorus girl through the only slightly subdued night life of wartime New York.