smear
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: note: r
enpr: smî
ipa: /smɪə(ɹ)/
enpr: smîr
ipa: /smiɚ/
ipa: /smɪɚ/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: smears
form: smearing
form: smeared
form: smeared
Etymology: From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *smirwijan, from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną. Doublet of schmear.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren, Low German smeren, German schmieren.
Senses: examples: text: The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.
text: In general, all bodies whose surfaces are even will […] stick to each other, and if a liquid be smeared over either surface, their cohesion will be still the stronger.
ref: 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 5, in A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, page 74:
text: Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them.
ref: 1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 778:
text: A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158:
text: Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.
ref: 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, New York: Penguin:
synonyms: apply
daub
plaster
spread
glosses: To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
examples: text: She smeared her lips with lipstick.
text: Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: […] a Vessel of huge bulk,
Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth,
Smeard round with Pitch,
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, lines 725-727:
text: […] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.
ref: 1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Vintage, published 2010, page 53:
synonyms: bedaub
coat
cover
daub
layer
plaster
glosses: To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
examples: text: A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.
ref: 1583, Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, London: George Bishop, Sermon 41, p. 246:
text: […] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,
ref: 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 11, in North and South, volume 2, London: Chapman and Hall, page 147:
text: His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,
ref: 2016, Ali Smith, chapter 2, in Autumn, Penguin, published 2017:
synonyms: besmirch
dirty
soil
sully
glosses: To make something dirty.
examples: text: a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin
ref: 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XVIII, page 263:
text: a rust spot smearing the back of the sink
ref: 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 6, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Knopf, published 1989, page 168:
text: Wet leaves smeared the pavement.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 323:
glosses: (of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.
examples: text: The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.
text: May everlasting shame consume
The memory of those who tried
To befoul and smear th’ exalted name
Of one who spurned them in his pride.
ref: 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 164:
text: 1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82,
The imperialist foreigners then in the offices of the Nation Newspapers would not allow the African staff to review it. They handled it themselves in order to smear the book and its author and his celebration of Mau Mau resistance.
text: They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.
ref: 2018, Richard Powers, “Neelay Mehta”, in The Overstory, New York: Norton:
synonyms: badmouth
besmirch
defame
sully
vilify
glosses: To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.
examples: text: When she had entered two or three laborious items in the account-book, Jip would walk over the page, wagging his tail, and smear them all out.
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 457:
text: Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.
ref: 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 5, p. 419:
text: Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.
ref: 2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 56:
synonyms: blur
smudge
glosses: To cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.
examples: text: The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.
synonyms: smudge
glosses: To become messy or not clear by being spread.
examples: text: ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops
ref: 1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 2, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, New York: Fawcett, published 1971, page 84:
text: smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy
ref: 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311:
text: […] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.
ref: 2001, Richard Flanagan, “The Freshwater Crayfish”, in Gould’s Book of Fish, New York: Grove Press, published 2002:
glosses: To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.
examples: text: small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood
ref: 1864, Richard F. Burton, chapter 3, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,, volume 1, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 43:
text: the fences and outhouses
built of barrel-staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
ref: 1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral”, in Al Que Quiere!, Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 15:
text: They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.
ref: 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Penguin, published 1994, Chapter 2.1, p. 73:
glosses: To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.
examples: text: […] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.
ref: 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 37:
text: With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,
ref: 1979, William Styron, chapter 3, in Sophie’s Choice, New York: Random House, page 58:
text: […] what was it with all those village people who could not stand on their feet without reaching out to smear their palm on a wall?
ref: 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chapter 6, in Americanah, New York: Knopf, page 74:
glosses: To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.
examples: text: He had […] a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck, with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke:
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198:
text: The boatman rowed short and hard […], only pausing at moments swiftly to smear the sweat from his face with an old rag he kept on the bench beside him.
ref: 1926, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in The Plumed Serpent, London: Heinemann, published 1955, page 85:
text: 1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323,
[…] she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.
glosses: To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.
Derived terms: asmear
besmear
smearer
smear the queer