Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Asper’sions

 Aspen.Aspnal’tic Lake. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Asper’sions
 
properly means “sprinklings” or “scatterings.” Its present meaning is base insinuations or slanders.   1
       
“No sweet aspersion [rain] shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow.”
       
Shakespeare: The Tempest, iv. 1.
   Casting aspersions on one, i.e. sprinkling with calumnies, slandering or insinuating misconduct.   2
        “I defy all the world to cast a just aspersion on my character.”—Fielding: Tom Jones.
 


 Aspen.Aspnal’tic Lake. 

 
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