a. [f. LIBEL sb. + -OUS.] Containing or constituting a libel, of the nature of a libel: also, engaged upon libels.
1619. Viscount Doncaster, Let., in Eng. & Germ. (Camden), 138. A libellous booke.
a. 1631. Donne, in Select. (1840), 238. An itching ear, delighting in the libellous defamation of other men.
1693. in Wood’s Life (1848), 374. The clauses and sentences … pretending to be reflecting and libellous upon Edward late earl of Clarendon.
1769–72. Junius Lett., Pref. 11. The paper … contained no treasonable or libellous matter.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 53. The publication of actual facts may be … criminal and libellous, when directed against private characters.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. iv. 207. The libellous pen of Martin Mar-prelate.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xv. It seemed hardly less libellous in him to imagine her grown a woman.
Hence Libellously adv.
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher (1850), 96. The phrase … was first given him libellously by Lord Rochester.
1865. Sat. Rev., 5 Aug., 168/2. Certain naturalists … libellously represented Aristotle as saying that goats breathed through their ears.
