Cartoon : Mudslinging

Political cartoon by Gary Varvel from The Indianapolis Star-News published on 21 October 2010.

Every election is said to be the dirtiest ever and this year’s elections are no different. The attack ads in this political election year are being called the dirtiest. In political lingo, this is called mudslinging.

Mudslinging is the practice of making unscrupulous, malicious attacks against an opponent. The person who is slinging mud is called a mudslinger.

The expressions is derived from the words sling and mud.  To sling means to throw something with force and carelessly. Careful! It is an irregular verb with ‘slung’ as both the simple past form and the past participle! Mud is what dirt becomes when wet.