scandal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An incident or event that disgraces or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved.

   Their affair was reported as a scandal by most tabloids.

2. 2
   noun

   Damage to one's reputation.

   The incident brought considerable scandal to his family.

3. 3
   noun

   Widespread moral outrage, indignation, as over an offence to decency.

   When their behaviour was made public it caused a great scandal.

4. 4
   noun

   Defamatory talk; gossip, slander.

   According to village scandal, they weren't even married.

5. 5
   verb

   To defame; to slander.

   I do fawn on men and hug them hard And after scandal them.

6. 6
   verb

   To scandalize; to offend.

   A propensity to scandal may partly proceed from an inability to distinguish the proper objects of censure

7. 7
   noun

   disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people

8. 8
   noun

   a disgraceful event

Etymology

From Middle French scandale (“indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech”), from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“that on which one trips, cause of offense”, literally “stumbling block”), from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling”), from Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”). Cognate with Latin scandō (“to climb”). First attested from Old Northern French escandle, but the modern word is a reborrowing. Doublet, via Old French esclandre, of slander. Sense evolution from "cause of stumbling, that which causes one to sin, stumbling…