DEFAME; DEFAMING

de-fam', de-fam'-ing: These words occur but twice in the King James Version, and are translations of dibbah, "slander," from dabhath, "to slander," or spread an evil report, and blasphemeo, "to speak injuriously" of anyone (Jeremiah 20:10; 1 Corinthians 4:13). "To defame" differs from "to revile" in that the former refers to public slander, the latter to personal abuse.

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.