A written (notably as handbill) or pictorial statement which unjustly seeks to damage someone's reputation. (noun)
The act or crime of displaying such a statement publicly. (noun)
To defame someone, especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel. (verb)
Examples of word libel
April except (1) Dr. Royce's insistence that my reply to his first libel should _not be published at all without his second libel_, and
Jill and Gretta are apparently on the job and both using the term libel as if they knew what it meant.
"A thrush forgets in a year," which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with another singer,
The old man, not knowing to whom to ascribe the (what he termed libel,) vented his malice on me, by asserting that I was the author of it, of which I was perfectly innocent: but he made my master believe it.
As to his defence having been abandoned, we refer your Lordships to the last petition laid by him upon your table, (that libellous petition, which we speak of as a libel upon the House of Commons,) and which has no validity but as it asserts a matter of fact from the petitioner; and there you will find that he has declared explicitly, that, for the accommodation and ease of this business, and for its expedition, he did abandon his defence at a certain period.