detraction, petty criticism (noun)

a petty disparagement

detraction (noun)

the act of discrediting or detracting from someone's reputation (especially by slander)

"let it be no detraction from his merits to say he is plainspoken"

detraction (Noun)

the act of detracting something, or something detracted

detraction (Noun)

a derogatory or malicious statement; a disparagement, misrepresentation or slander

detraction (Noun)

(Roman Catholic Church) the act of revealing previously unknown faults of another person to a third person.

Detraction

In Roman Catholic theology, detraction is the sin of revealing another person's faults to a third person without a valid reason. This differs from the sin of calumny and the civil wrong of defamation, which generally involve false accusations rather than unflattering truths. As in the case of stealing, detraction is a sin which demands restitution, even though rebuilding a victim's reputation may be nearly impossible. A commonly-cited parable in this regard concerns a priest, often said to be Philip Neri, who gave a women who had confessed to spreading gossip the penance of retrieving feathers that had been scattered on the wind—a task as impossible as undoing the damage she had done.

Detraction

In Christian theology, detraction is the sin of revealing another person's real faults to a third person without a valid reason, thereby lessening the reputation of that person. It holds, in the Roman Catholic Church, the status of a mortal sin from the perspective of moral theology.