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.
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 McKenzie, Aimée G. Leffingwel
To daub over; to besmear or soil with anything thick and dirty.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
“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.
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 Joly, H. Bencraft
Madame Boche, in her turn, caught sight of Lantier and uttered a faint cry without ceasing to besmear her face with her tears.
From L'Assommoir by Zola, Émile
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.
