Noah Webster
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.]