Other forms: maligned, maligning, maligns
To malign is to say damaging and untrue things about somebody. Malign his reputation, much maligned, malign a whole group.
Much maligned is the commonest form and defends rather than attacks, since it says the criticism was unfair. As an adjective it means evil in intent, as in a malign influence, and its opposite is benign.
1verbmalignTo say damaging and untrue things about somebody.
“The press maligned him for years, but he was eventually proved innocent.”
malign is a slandering.
Latin malignus means of a bad nature, from malus, bad, plus a root meaning kind or sort.
Latin
malignus
Old French
maligne
Middle English
maligne
English, today
malign
Built from
From Middle English maligne, from Old French maligne, from Latin malignus, from malus (“bad”) + genus (“sort, kind”). Compare benign.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA