discredit

1. (countable or uncountable) Discrediting or disbelieving.Examples: "Mr. Burton disbelieves it, and has brought sufficient reasons for his discredit of so improbable a story."; "It would have been too serious a task to verify his numerous citations in our very careful reading for the present notice; but we are bound to say that, observing his discredit of some of the passages which he quotes from a contemporary American writer, and struck ourselves with the apparent inexactness of the statements in teste extracts (pp. 579, 616, 647), we were led to compare his citations, and, to our surprise, we find them incorrect and even garbled, and in one place where he had queried (thus (?)) the fact, we were surprised to find the doubt pertained to one of his own interpolations in the extracts."; "Madan encouraged many believers in the supremacy of justice to struggle for human rights within the established systems in order to purify the image of the national institutions against any discredits by biased and unjust people."countableuncountable

2. (countable) A person or thing that causes harm to a reputation, as of a person, family, or institution.Examples: "[…] that now and then a young man of that profession did actually appear among us, who was not a discredit to his country."; "I felt at the time that to pass it so hastily would be a discredit to Parliament, as custodian of the liberties of the people of this country. I felt, too, that it would be a discredit to the colony, and a discredit, a deep discredit, to the Government"; "The animal informed me that if it were not for the great game of baseball I would be chopping cotton or pushing a broom. And that I was a discredit to my race. By definition, any black hurts his people if he is other than abjectly, supinely, hand-lickingly grateful for having been allowed to earn a decent living."countable

3. (uncountable) The state of being discredited or disbelieved.Examples: "Later accounts have brought the story into discredit."uncountable

4. (uncountable) A degree of dishonour or disesteem; ill repute; reproach.Examples: "It is the duty of every Christian to be concerned for the reputation or discredit his life may bring on his profession."; "It is to David Brill's discredit that he allowed himself — a long-time activist in the gay community and a paid staff writer for a gay liberation newspaper — to use his extensive news sources and a solid standing in the community to participate in what appears to be at this time a well-organized police entrapment of a gay man whom many are eager to indict and imprison."Synonyms: demerituncountable