discredit

verb

1. (transitive)To harm the good reputation of (a person).

   “The candidate tried to discredit his opponent.”

2. (transitive)To cause (an idea or piece of evidence) to seem false or unreliable.

   “The evidence would tend to discredit such a theory.”

   “Many of our correspondents participated in the discussion, and the upshot was that the alleged record was discredited.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Discrediting or disbelieving.

   “Mr. Burton disbelieves it, and has brought sufficient reasons for his discredit of so improbable a story.”

   “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.”

   “As we find in a number of parts of Cho\ng's writings his belief in the personified image of Heaven and his discredit of the fundamental and universal nature and the ultimacy of li, we find it difficult to assume that he was not affected by the Jesuit writings he had read.”

   “The detractors of the Christian faith seem to revel in their "discredit of anything scientific concerning the basis of the belief that God is the causal Creator of man, yet offer no scientific 'proof that their criticisms are valid and their beliefs that there is no God, or first cause in creation, are provable by the evidence they present to the world.”

2. (countable)A person or thing that causes harm to a reputation, as of a person, family, or institution.

   “[…] 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.”

   “And for now to have a policy where those fine Americans can only serve if they lie about who they are is a discredit to the American people. It is a discredit to their service and their opportunity. It is a discredit to people who have died in service.”

   “Inadequate, undisciplined, and nondevoted teachers are discredits to the schools they serve.”

3. (uncountable)The state of being discredited or disbelieved.

   “Later accounts have brought the story into discredit.”

4. (uncountable)A degree of dishonour or disesteem; ill repute; reproach.

   “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.”