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.
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
She was about to besmear her face, when lady Feng pleaded: "My dear child, do let me off this time!"
From Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by H. Bencraft Joly
There is no arrogance so great as the proclaiming of other men's errors and faults, by those who understand nothing but the dregs of actions, and who make it their business to besmear deserving fames.
From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike
To foul with a dirty liquid; to besmear.
From The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire by James Jennings
I lose myself in the recollections of my childhood like an old man … I do not expect anything further in life than a succession of sheets of paper to besmear with black.
From The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters by Aimée G. Leffingwel McKenzie
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.
