The column's innuendo was unmistakable. (innuendo: insinuation, implication, hint; unmistakable: obvious, clear, evident) A printed insinuation about a missing wedding ring would malign the cafe owner without quite accusing her. (insinuation: innuendo, implication, hint; malign: slander, defame, vilify) The editor called it satire. (satire: ironic criticism, social lampoon, humorous criticism) She called it a scurrilous way to sell a paper, and put a copy under every plate, folded to show his telephone number. (scurrilous: abusive, defamatory, slanderous)
His reply was evasive. (evasive: equivocal, noncommittal, indirect) He did not mean to insinuate theft; he was merely reporting that the owner had declined to comment. (insinuate: imply, hint, intimate) Her silence had a less scandalous explanation. (scandalous: outrageous, disgraceful, shameful) He had called at three in the morning. She asked him to retract the story where its readers would see it. (retract: withdraw, recant, take back)
By noon he had printed the correction on his front page. Beneath it he put an apology for the distortion. (distortion: misrepresentation, twisting, falsification) There was a fresh paper under every plate the next day too. The owner had never carried advertising, but this week the editor earned a second edition for free.