How to Use discredit in a Sentence

discredit

1 of 2 verb
  • The prosecution discredited the witness by showing that she had lied in the past.
  • Many of his theories have been thoroughly discredited.
  • But in the past, it was used to discredit a single account or a small group by naming them in the escort ads.
    Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Some see ominous echoes of states’ rights sentiment that was discredited at great cost in the 1860s.
    Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 29 July 2023
  • Donald Trump figured out how to play the media and how to use members of his party in order to discredit me.
    Kk Ottesen, Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2022
  • His lawsuit suggests that is a reason for an effort to discredit him.
    Howard Koplowitz | Hkoplowitz@al.com, al, 26 Jan. 2023
  • In the eyes of its adherents, and in the messaging of the gun lobby and trade groups, attempts to discredit Lott are really attempts to suppress the truth.
    Mike Spies, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2022
  • A lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us.
    Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 10 Dec. 2023
  • The two doctrines worked in tandem to try to discredit Indigenous knowledge.
    Brendan Ross, Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2023
  • Greenberg cited the growing movement to discredit and distort the truth of the massacre as the rationale for hosting the screening.
    Andrew Wallenstein, Variety, 9 Nov. 2023
  • Despite his support for the movement, he’s been labeled by some on the far right as a deep state agent working to discredit Trump, the outlet reported.
    Brieanna J. Frank, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Biden has argued that Trump and his allies pose a threat to U.S. democracy with their efforts to discredit the 2020 results.
    Catherine Lucey, WSJ, 16 Jan. 2024
  • House Republicans have since aimed to discredit the letter and the inquiry.
    Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 24 Mar. 2023
  • One of those methods is to discredit elections, no matter who’s expected to win.
    Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 7 Nov. 2022
  • But the defense did not discredit Ellison or the thrust of her testimony.
    Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2023
  • Spacey’s attorneys spent much of the trial trying to discredit his accusers.
    Jonah Valdez, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2023
  • Not to discredit anything in between that happened, because all those things were real too.
    Alyssa Bailey, ELLE, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Many far-right activists immediately sought to discredit Mills after the news of his vote broke.
    Tori Otten, The New Republic, 25 May 2023
  • Prosecutors sought to discredit both Bradley and Yeartie.
    Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 1 Mar. 2024
  • The book has been widely discredited and was banned in the U.S. shortly after its publication.
    Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 24 May 2023
  • Through testimony from Haggis and other ex-members, his defense argued that the church set out to discredit him and might have had something to do with the lawsuit.
    CBS News, 10 Nov. 2022
  • The apparent discrepancy in Rapp's account came as the Spacey legal team attempts to discredit him.
    Daniel Arkin, NBC News, 11 Oct. 2022
  • Meanwhile, Spacey and his attorneys have tried to discredit the accusers and cast doubt on their allegations.
    Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 24 July 2023
  • Motorola’s then-PR chief described a strategy to discredit the findings in a pair of memos that were later leaked to Microwave News.
    Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 10 Nov. 2022
  • This was despite Bates being widely discredited by the medical establishment in his own day and for decades to come.
    Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Eubanks accused Lythgoe’s filing of cherry-picking from years of messages with Abdul to try to discredit her claims.
    Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2024
  • In many schools, public and private alike, students are taught that the ideas contained in our founding documents are discredited by slavery.
    Caleb Nunes, National Review, 8 Sep. 2023
  • The coverage harkened back to the years after the 2016 election, when Trump aimed to discredit and destroy institutions such as the FBI for investigating him.
    Oliver Darcy, CNN, 9 June 2023
  • The Kremlin, eager to discredit the renegade Russians, dismissed them on Wednesday as neo-fascists.
    Valerie Hopkins, New York Times, 25 May 2023
  • If the work was insignificant, powerful people wouldn’t be spending so much time trying to attack it and discredit me.
    Meredith Blakestaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2023
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discredit

2 of 2 noun
  • And that’s no discredit to Garrett trying to play one of those two guys, or George Hill trying to play one of those two guys.
    Jason Jones, sacbee, 14 Dec. 2017
  • To be sure, Trump works hard to earn discredit, but his critics are slowly catching up with him.
    Jay Ambrose, Star Tribune, 10 Aug. 2020
  • House rules also prohibit acting in a matter that brings discredit to the House.
    Michael Gold, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2022
  • The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation.
    Zainab Fattah, Fortune, 20 June 2019
  • To their eternal discredit, county supervisors saw nothing wrong with building right to the edges of cliffs.
    Logan Jenkins, sandiegouniontribune.com, 8 July 2017
  • Kanwit found O'Dea brought discredit to the city for wounding a friend in a shooting while camping and not notifying the public about it until reporters asked about it.
    Maxine Bernstein, OregonLive.com, 18 Aug. 2017
  • That the students of the University of Virginia have not availed themselves of the opportunity to learn about this is to their discredit rather than Jefferson’s.
    The Editors, National Review, 26 Aug. 2022
  • But the Navy ultimately demoted the chief, who was convicted of one charge: bringing discredit to the armed forces by posing for photos with the teenage captive’s dead body.
    BostonGlobe.com, 24 Nov. 2019
  • This represents a historic setback that only adds to the isolation and discredit of the U.S. government.
    Tracy Wilkinsonstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2022
  • The already thick cloud of discredit over the Trump presidency thickened deeper Friday, June 23.
    David Frum, The Atlantic, 23 June 2017
  • At trial he was acquitted of all charges except one, for which he was demoted: bringing discredit to the armed forces by posing for photos with the teenage captive’s dead body.
    New York Times, 24 Nov. 2019
  • Why would Jefferson publicly defend Washington and discredit Genêt, only to help the French envoy behind the scenes?
    Shaun Assael, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2021
  • Despite, or because of its farcical origin, debunk has taken the place of more sober synonyms such as discredit or expose.
    Ralph Keyes, Time, 1 Apr. 2021
  • That’s no discredit to him, but rather an acknowledgment that the highest tier of NBA stars exist in a totally different pantheon.
    Andy Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Dec. 2021
  • The comments discredit Taylor, her talent, and her experience as a sports analyst for nearly a decade.
    Zoe Haylock, Vulture, 6 July 2021
  • Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury in July of all the charges except one minor count: bringing discredit on the armed forces, by posing for a photo with the corpse of the captive he was accused of killing.
    BostonGlobe.com, 30 Oct. 2019
  • To keep Bennett, especially, in tow, Netanyahu needs to prove that failing to stand with him would mean courting discredit with future supporters.
    Bernard Avishai, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Thirty-five years ago, the nuclear disaster known to the world as Chernobyl brought discredit at home and abroad to an inept and corrupt Soviet communist regime and signaled the end of the Soviet Union.
    Arthur Herman, National Review, 18 July 2021
  • But there are other, general standards in place that apply and forbid officers from conduct that would bring discredit to the department, Sarnow said.
    Elliot Hughes, Journal Sentinel, 7 Apr. 2023
  • As such, your actions reflected discredit upon the Senate.
    Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The regrettable attack on Nat (King) Cole in Birmingham by a band of hoodlums redounds to the everlasting discredit of those who foster race prejudice.
    AL.com, 11 Jan. 2018
  • But to its discredit, the Tribune largely ignored them, instead writing about white performers like Benny Goodman.
    Chicago Tribune Staff, Chicago Tribune, 5 June 2022
  • Sorry, but such double standards discredit #Metoo The answer to male privilege is not female privilege.
    Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 24 Aug. 2018
  • Gallagher was acquitted of murder but convicted of bringing discredit to the armed services after posing with the corpse of an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq.
    BostonGlobe.com, 29 Nov. 2019
  • Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department ... and demands your termination.
    Nicole Chavez, CNN, 23 Sep. 2020
  • After a tumultuous trial, he was acquitted by a military jury in July of all charges except one minor count: bringing discredit on the armed forces, by posing for a photo with the corpse of the captive he was accused of killing.
    BostonGlobe.com, 17 Nov. 2019
  • After the Tigers’ latest annihilation of an opponent — and that’s no discredit to Homestead, which might’ve been the toughest test Northwestern had left — Bostic finally cracked.
    Matthew Vantryon, Indianapolis Star, 16 Feb. 2020
  • Efforts to censor, cancel, discredit, or destroy the work of anyone with contrasting viewpoints are canonized by the wealthy, powerful left-wing elites and their institutions.
    Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 3 Dec. 2020
  • To his discredit, however, Manchin has also doomed that bill to legislative oblivion by simply begging Republicans to support it.
    Matt Ford, The New Republic, 7 June 2021
  • To her discredit, Judge Aquilina abdicated her role as an impartial arbiter and became instead a tribune for prosecutors and the victims.
    Andrew Cohen, New Republic, 25 Jan. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'discredit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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