besmear

American  

[bih-smeer] / bɪˈsmɪər /

verb (used with object)

1. to smear all over; bedaub.

2. to sully; defile; soil.

   to besmear someone's reputation.

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besmear British  

/ bɪˈsmɪə /

verb

1. to smear over; daub

2. to sully; defile (often in the phrase besmear ( a person's ) reputation )

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Other Word Forms

• besmearer noun
• unbesmeared adjective

Etymology

Origin of besmear

before 1050; Middle English bismeren, Old English besmerian. See be-, smear

Example Sentences

He sat behind his card-strewn counter holding the stencil brush like a sort of weapon ready to besmear that face of sneering assurance if its owner ventured too near.

From Pee-Wee Harris by Fitzhugh, Percy Keese

Beslobber, be-slob′ėr, v.t. to besmear with the spittle running from one's mouth: to cover with drivelling kisses: to flatter fulsomely.—v.t.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

I had noticed before, in the Malmö prison, how the prisoners tried to besmear this glass, or scratch on it, with a sort of fury, so that it was often impossible to see through it.

From Recollections of My Childhood and Youth by Brandes, Georg Morris Cohen

The colours with which they besmear the bodies of both sexes possibly date from the same common origin.

From A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Tench, Watkin

“They are gentlemen, no matter how much you may wish to besmear them with low epithets.”

From The Squatter and the Don by Loyal, C.