How to Use libelous in a Sentence

libelous

adjective
  • In the print media world, if a newspaper runs a libelous story about someone, that person can sue the outlet.
    — Animals, 18 Dec. 2020
  • The data privacy law covers a wide swath of real and truthful data that could be held on any device, not just things that could be libelous.
    — Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2022
  • McMullin said the ad was inaccurate and libelous and has taken legal action over it.
    — Sam Metz, ajc, 31 Oct. 2022
  • Or, to put things a bit more sharply, the case will help demarcate the line between really bad journalism and libelous journalism.
    — Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2022
  • The jury agreed with the plaintiff’s accusation that five quotations in my article were false and libelous.
    — Janet Malcolm, The New York Review of Books, 24 Sep. 2020
  • Republicans many of whom, including Dent, would thank you for not affixing to them that libelous label.
    — George Will, National Review, 6 Jan. 2018
  • The teen said in his petition that the video was meant to be a parody of action movies, and contained no obscene, libelous or slanderous conduct.
    — Angela Ruggiero, The Mercury News, 22 May 2017
  • And, in light of Evan’s libelous assault, David defends the honor of the venerable hatch chili pepper.
    — Dallas News, 17 Aug. 2021
  • The company has denied that the article was libelous, Reuters reported.
    — New York Times, 8 July 2022
  • Other tweets fall into the categories of infantile and allegedly libelous.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2021
  • In the post, publisher Jon Newton linked to the allegedly libelous articles.
    — Jennifer Welsh, Discover Magazine, 7 Dec. 2010
  • The publication of a false accusation of a crime like murder is libelous under American law.
    — David French, National Review, 12 Aug. 2019
  • Despite what spin the college places on the facts of this case, libelous statements have never enjoyed protections under the First Amendment.
    — Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com, 28 June 2019
  • Picasso supporters attacked the book, calling it libelous and vindictive.
    — Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 6 June 2023
  • The lawsuit was over Lyon-Ballay's blog posts that Fox said were false, libelous and demeaning to her reputation.
    — Cynthia Howell, Arkansas Online, 10 Jan. 2023
  • Up against corrupt prosecutors, a vicious news media, and libelous social media influencers.
    — W. James Antle Iii, The Week, 11 Nov. 2021
  • His lawyers argue that his tweet was not libelous because the activist was voicing an opinion, not an assertion capable of being proved factual or otherwise.
    — Washington Post, 20 Feb. 2021
  • If there were whispers that something more perverse or calamitous might have transpired, they were branded libelous, sensationalist, or otherwise untrue.
    — Rebecca Panovka, Harper's Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024
  • The ruling appears to be the first to address the question of whether being labeled as transgender is sufficiently harmful to one's reputation to be libelous.
    — NBC News, 31 Aug. 2017
  • The photograph may not feature nudity or obscene language or material that is libelous or defamatory.
    — Woman's Day, 14 Oct. 2017
  • The photograph may not feature nudity or obscene language or material that is libelous or defamatory.
    — Country Living, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The photograph may not feature nudity or obscene language or material that is libelous or defamatory.
    — Country Living, 26 Sep. 2017
  • The photograph may not feature nudity or obscene language or material that is libelous or defamatory.
    — Popular Mechanics, 5 Mar. 2018
  • So in essence, if there's hate speech on Facebook or facts that are misleading or even libelous or what have you, Section 230 protects these platforms from being sued.
    — Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 1 Nov. 2021
  • Oligarchs can donate their way to legal impunity because Britain’s libel laws place the burden of proof on defendants, who must prove that an allegedly libelous statement is true.
    — David Segal, New York Times, 29 Mar. 2022
  • The copy editor will look for grammatical errors, and sometimes the publisher’s lawyer will check the book to make sure there’s nothing libelous in there, but fact-checking is not part of the standard publisher’s process.
    — Constance Grady, Vox, 20 Apr. 2018
  • Wolff’s book was attacked for being libelous and malicious; Bolton’s for containing classified information.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 2 July 2020
  • And finally, modern far-right terrorists still frequently invoke the same libelous assertion that white women must be protected from licentious Black men.
    — TIME, 14 May 2024
  • Weirdly, Roosevelt once had to defend himself against a libelous editorial written by a newspaper owner in a remote part of Michigan.
    — Mark Will-Weber, Town & Country, 10 Apr. 2017
  • The second is that the websites cannot be held legally responsible for most of what their users post online, shielding the companies from lawsuits over libelous speech, extremist content and real-world harm linked to their platforms.
    — David McCabe, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'libelous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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