smirching

That requires low cunning, a smirching of yourself as civilization is smirched.

His most recent prank had so angered Lady Oma, involving as it did the smirching of guest linens, that he had been forbidden to attend the Gather, and the punishment was enforced by locking the boy in the Hold's cell.

Michael, frantic at this public smirching of her fair name, with a cry as that of a wild animal wounded to death, bounds forward to where his snowdrop in standing and sinks to his knees, pleading with the judge to stop the desecration of his beloved's character.