besmear
Americanverb (used with object)
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to smear all over; bedaub.
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to sully; defile; soil.
to besmear someone's reputation.
verb
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to smear over; daub
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to sully; defile (often in the phrase besmear ( a person's ) reputation )
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of besmear
before 1050; Middle English bismeren, Old English besmerian. See be-, smear
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is said that elephants in India will besmear themselves with mud as a protection against insects, and that they will break branches from the trees and use them to brush away the flies.
From Ways of Nature by John Burroughs
To daub over; to besmear or soil with anything thick and dirty.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
“They are gentlemen, no matter how much you may wish to besmear them with low epithets.”
From The Squatter and the Don by C. Loyal
They fashion his image of kadamb7 wood and besmear it with red lead.
From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell
On the four corners of the platform, large jars were placed, filled with melted butter, to besmear the pyramid, that it might be the more easily set on fire.
From Dr. Scudder's Tales for Little Readers, About the Heathen. by Dr. John Scudder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
