Other forms: vilified, vilifying, vilifies
To vilify is to speak of somebody with vicious abuse. Vilified in the press, vilify the whole group, vilified for it.
It is nearly always passive, since being vilified is something done to you by a crowd or a newspaper. It is built on vile, and to vilify is literally to make somebody vile in the telling.
1verbvilifyTo speak of somebody with vicious abuse.
“The referee was vilified in the press after the controversial decision.”
vilify is an abusing.
VILify → to call somebody VILE
It is right there in the spelling: to vilify somebody is simply to call them vile.
hooks ontovile
Latin vilificare means to make cheap or vile, from vilis, worthless.
Latin
vīlificō — vilify
English, today
vilify
From Latin vīlificō (“vilify”). Equivalent to vile + -ify. Compare vilipend.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA