How to Use libel in a Sentence

libel

1 of 2 noun
  • The newspaper was found guilty of libel.
  • He sued the newspaper for libel.
  • The newspaper's attorneys argued that the article was not a libel.
  • Sugar libel was snipped from both bills.
    — Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 27 Feb. 2026
  • The libel case filed by his half-brother is dismissed by the court.
    — CNN, 14 Feb. 2022
  • Noel Clarke has lost his libel case against The Guardian.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 22 Aug. 2025
  • If this is correct, then the rapper would be liable for libel.
    — James Freeman, WSJ, 17 Mar. 2021
  • And since a libel case requires proof of falsity, their case was doomed.
    — Jack Greiner, Cincinnati.com, 22 June 2017
  • Correa sued them for libel, and both men were sentenced to 18 months in prison.
    — Diana Durán, Washington Post, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Doronin sued, alleging libel and defamation, and swaths of the ski town turned against him.
    — Chris Pomorski, Curbed, 17 Oct. 2022
  • Those claims amounted to slander and libel, the lawsuit says.
    — Dustin Gardiner, azcentral, 15 June 2018
  • Her assets had been frozen as part of a libel case, one of 47 suits pending against her.
    — Nicholas Kulish, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018
  • In a public filing in England, he was sued for libel based on the dossier.
    — NBC News, 7 Jan. 2018
  • People might find themselves on the wrong end of a defamation or libel lawsuit.
    — Vic Ryckaert, Indianapolis Star, 19 July 2017
  • Pearson was sued for libel more than any other journalist, and proud of it.
    — Fergus M. Bordewich, WSJ, 21 May 2021
  • Depp and Heard took the stand in May over competing libel charges.
    — Amy Haneline, USA TODAY, 15 Dec. 2022
  • The outing comes after Depp sued a British tabloid for libel.
    — Ale Russian, PEOPLE.com, 13 June 2018
  • The loss of his libel case is a big blow to Depp and could cost him lucrative acting roles.
    — William Booth, Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2020
  • The third friend, who is himself an ex-boyfriend of hers, sends a string of voice notes advising her about libel laws.
    — Hazlitt, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Shimron denies Artzi’s account and has since sued him for libel.
    — Ruth Margalit, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023
  • The site claimed that Kweli could’ve sued them for libel, but the statute of limitations had passed last year.
    — Vulture, 9 Aug. 2022
  • First Amendment scholars say the case is a rarity in libel law.
    — Jeremy W. Peters, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Aug. 2022
  • The Times libeled Palin, so the Times deserves to lose her libel suit.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 6 Feb. 2022
  • That accusation — known as the blood libel — has been passed around for almost a thousand years.
    — Mike Rothschild, Big Think, 31 Mar. 2026
  • But while Kitagawa may have lost the libel case, no criminal charges were ever brought against him.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The filings came a day before the statute of limitations for a libel claim would have expired.
    — Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Robertson sued for libel, but later dropped the suit and agreed to pay McCloskey’s court costs.
    — Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
  • The claim also resulted in a libel lawsuit.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 18 Dec. 2025
  • The claim also resulted in a libel lawsuit.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 25 Nov. 2025
  • The site's lawyers disputed any malice and said the time limit for filing the libel complaint had passed.
    — Jim Gomez and Aaron Favila, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 June 2020

libel

2 of 2 verb
  • The jury found that the article libeled him.
  • Krull said one of the main things to consider is whether Dakich libeled or defamed anyone.
    — Dana Hunsinger Benbow, Indianapolis Star, 25 Mar. 2020
  • There’s no law against defaming, slandering or libeling the dead.
    — Danielle Bacher, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2019
  • The courts ruled O’Brien had not libeled him and he was not entitled to $5 billion as a result.
    — vanityfair.com, 9 Feb. 2017
  • Just as the First Amendment’s protects free speech, but doesn’t give a license to people to libel others.
    — Andrés Oppenheimer, miamiherald, 26 Feb. 2018
  • Its self-righteous blinders have led it to reflexively libel even accomplished scholars.
    — A. J. Caschetta, National Review, 26 July 2021
  • Gross was threatened with the loss of his Polish state honors and prosecution for ostensibly libelling the nation.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2019
  • The two ultimately went to trial because Irving felt libeled that Lipstadt called him a Holocaust denier in her book.
    — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 20 Mar. 2018
  • On top of causing emotional trauma, the suit claims, Goodlett's actions libeled the former students and damaged their reputations.
    — Matthew Glowicki, The Courier-Journal, 28 Sep. 2017
  • The virtues of a free press come under attack in another scene, in which a woman dumps a bucket of excrement over the head of a local official, claiming that she has been libeled by a local newspaper.
    — Justin Chang, latimes.com, 11 May 2018
  • Gibson’s Bakery filed a lawsuit against the college in 2017, claiming the school and an administrator there hurt their business and libeled them.
    — Jane Morice | [email protected], cleveland, 17 Nov. 2019
  • Actor James Woods thinks the trooper should sue anyone who libeled him while perpetuating the lie and media analyst Mark Dice agrees.
    — Brian Flood, Fox News, 25 May 2018
  • The poll became public when it was submitted by Issa in an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging that Applegate attack ads libeled the incumbent.
    — Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register, 19 Mar. 2017
  • According to the Chronicle-Telegram, the court found that the college had libeled the bakery and its owners, in addition to inflicting emotional distress on the owners.
    — Washington Post, 10 June 2019
  • Instead, the jury unanimously determined that Oberlin College libeled the Gibsons.
    — Brian Pascus, CBS News, 27 June 2019
  • The attorney said the website libels Sibley, interferes with the recruitment of businesses and new residents, and negatively affects property rights.
    — USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The real industry is the network of academics, lawyers, activists, and funders who libel and slander critics of Islamism, even those who cautiously stipulate between Islam and Islamism.
    — A. J. Caschetta, National Review, 26 July 2021
  • Jace Richter, 18, who was released from the football team after the allegations against him went public, also asserts that he was defamed, slandered, libeled and portrayed in a false light, according to the suit filed in early December.
    — Katy Moeller, idahostatesman, 20 Dec. 2017
  • After months of contentious testimony, a seven-member jury found unanimously that Heard had libeled her ex and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
    — Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 23 Dec. 2024
  • The jury of nine began deliberations on Friday afternoon and on Tuesday said the newspaper did not libel the former vice presidential nominee through a 2017 editorial.
    — Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY, 16 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'libel.' 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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