#934.  Detraction. —­ N. detraction, disparagement, depreciation,
vilification, obloquy, scurrility, scandal, defamation, aspersion, traducement, slander, calumny, obtrectation[obs3], evil-speaking, backbiting, scandalum magnatum[Lat].
     personality, libel, lampoon, skit, pasquinade; chronique
scandaleuse[Fr]; roorback [U.S.].
     sarcasm, cynicism; criticism (disapprobation) 932; invective &c. 932;
envenomed tongue; spretae injuria formae[Lat].
     personality, libel, lampoon, skit, pasquinade; chronique
scandaleuse[Fr]; roorback [U.S.].
     detractor &c. 936. 
     V. detract, derogate, decry, deprecate, depreciate, disparage; run
down, cry down; backcap [obs3][U.S.]; belittle; sneer at &c. (contemn) 930; criticize, pull to pieces, pick a hole in one’s coat, asperse, cast aspersions, blow upon, bespatter, blacken, vilify, vilipend[obs3]; avile|; give a dog a bad name, brand, malign; muckrake; backbite, libel, lampoon, traduce, slander, defame, calumniate, bear false witness against; speak ill of behind one’s back.
     fling dirt &c. (disrespect) 929; anathematize &c. 932; dip the pen in
gall, view in a bad light.
      impugn[disparage the motives of]; assail, attack &c. 716; oppose &c.
708; denounce, accuse &c. 938. 
     Adj. detracting &c.v.; defamatory, detractory[obs3], derogatory,
deprecatory; catty; disparaging, libelous; scurrile, scurrilous; abusive; foul-spoken, foul-tongued, foul-mouthed; slanderous; calumnious, calumniatory[obs3]; sarcastic, sardonic; sarcastic, satirical, cynical.
     critical &c. 932. 
     Phr. “damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer; and without
sneering, teach the rest to sneer” [Pope]; another lie nailed to the counter; “cut men’s throats with whisperings” [B.  Jonson]; “foul whisperings are abroad” “soft-buzzing slander” [Macbeth][Thomson]; “virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes” [Hamlet].

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     #935.  Flatterer. —­ N. flatterer, adulator; eulogist, euphemist;
optimist, encomiast, laudator[Lat], whitewasher.
     toady, toadeater[obs3]; sycophant, courtier, Sir Pertinax
MacSycophant; flaneur[Fr], proneur[Fr]; puffer, touter[obs3], claqueur[Fr]; clawback[obs3], earwig, doer of dirty work; parasite, hanger-on &c. (servility) 886.
     yes-man, suckup, ass-kisser [vulgar], brown-noser [vulgar], teacher’s
pet. 
     Phr. pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes [Lat][Tacitus].

     #936.  Detractor. —­ N. detractor, reprover; censor, censurer; cynic,
critic, caviler, carper, word-catcher, frondeur; barracker[obs3].
     defamer, backbiter, slanderer, Sir Benjamin Backbite, lampooner,
satirist, traducer, libeler, calumniator, dawplucker[obs3], Thersites[obs3]; Zoilus; good-natured friend [satirically]; reviler, vituperator, castigator; shrew &c. 901; muckraker.
     disapprover, laudator temporis acti [Lat][Horace]. 
     Adj. black-mouthed, abusive &c. 934.