Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIL'I-FY, v.t. [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. – Milton.
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. – Addison. [This is the most usual sense of the verb.]