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Asperʹsions

properly means “sprinklings” or “scatterings.” Its present meaning is base insinuations or slanders.

“No sweet aspersion [rain] shall the heavens let fall

To make this contract grow.”


Shakespeare: The Tempest, iv. 1.

Casting aspersions on one, i.e. sprinkling with calumnies, slandering or insinuating misconduct.


“I defy all the world to cast a just aspersion on my character.”—Fielding: Tom Jones.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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~ Ask
Ask and Embla
Aslo
Asmodeus [the destroyer]
Asmodeus
Asoka
Asoors
Aspasia
Aspatia
Aspen
Aspersions
Aspnaltic Lake
Asrael
Ass
Ass
Ass’s Bridge (The)
Asses (Feast of)
Ass-eared
Assassins
Assay
Assaye Regiment