Malign, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Maligned; p. pr. & vb. n. Maligning.]
Etymology: [Cf. L. malignare. See Malign, a.]
To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong; to injure. [Obs.] The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they will against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods, or murdering them. Spenser.
2. To speak great evil of; to traduce; to defame; to slander; to vilify; to asperse. To be envied and shot at; to be maligned standing, and to be despised falling. South.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Malign, a.
1. Having an evil disposition toward others; harboring violent enmity; malevolent; malicious; spiteful; -- opposed to benign. Witchcraft may be by operation of malign spirits. Bacon.
2. Unfavorable; unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure; as, a malign aspect of planets.
3. Malignant; as, a malign ulcer. [R.] Bacon.
Malign, v. i.
To entertain malice. [Obs.]
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for malign; he lists it under abuse, slander.
Where he writes about it:
Defame, malign, rail at, revile, slander, vilify, and vituperate are used always in a bad sense. — from abuse
To asperse is, as it were, to bespatter with injurious charges; to malign is to circulate studied and malicious attacks upon character; to traduce is to exhibit one's real or assumed traits in an odious light; to revile or vilify is to attack with vile abuse. — from slander