asperse

panetella, herjata To sprinkle or scatter (liquid or dust).
To falsely or maliciously charge another.
(RQ:Fielding Tom Jone)

This is indeed a most aggravating circumstance, which attends depriving men unjustly of their reputation; for a man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him; but ought rather to despise such as affect his conversation, unless where a perfect intimacy must have convinced them that their friend’s character hath been falsely and injuriously aspersed.