Aspersion

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A sprinkling, as with water or dust, in a literal sense. Behold an immersion, not and aspersion. Jer. Taylor.

2. The spreading of calumniations reports or charges which tarnish reputation, like the bespattering of a body with foul water; calumny. Every candid critic would be ashamed to cast wholesale aspersions on the entire body of professional teachers. Grote. Who would by base aspersions blot thy virtue. Dryden.