Vilify

VIL'IFY, verb transitive [from vile.]

1. To make vile; to debase; to degrade.

Their Maker's image forsook them, when themselves they vilified to serve ungovern'd appetite.

2. To defame; to traduce; to attempt to degrade by slander.

Many passions dispose us to depress and vilify the merit of one rising in the esteem of mankind.

[This is the most usual sense of the verb.]