I came across the word "mud-flinging" in a news title this morning,
G.O.P. Presidential Hopefuls Gird for a Month of Mud-Flinging.
It infers a meaning of scolding or attacking each other, but it is not included in my dictionaries. What's the exact meaning of "mud-flinging"?
Best Answer
Fling means "throw", usually with a sense of violence; mud is wet dirt, which sticks and soils when it hits somebody you throw it at. Politicians fling figurative mud, charges of improper behavior or opinions, at a rival in the hope that the mud will 'stick'—that the public will believe the charges and recoil from voting for the rival.
Mudslinging means exactly the same thing.