"denigrating" in the verb sense
1. minimize, belittle, denigrate, derogate
cause to seem less serious play down
"Don't belittle his influence"
2. defame, slander, smirch, asperse, denigrate, calumniate, smear, sully, besmirch
charge falsely or with malicious intent attack the good name and reputation of someone
"The journalists have defamed me!"
"The article in the paper sullied my reputation"
"denigrating" in the adjective sense
1. calumniatory, calumnious, defamatory, denigrative, denigrating, denigratory, libellous, libelous, slanderous
used of statements) harmful and often untrue tending to discredit or malign
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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