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

Then round they sit, a chearful company, All eagerly begin, and with heap'd spoons Besmear from ear to ear their rosy cheeks.

From Poems, &c. (1790) Wherein It Is Attempted To Describe Certain Views Of Nature And Of Rustic Manners; And Also, To Point Out, In Some Instances, The Different Influence Which The Same Circumstances Produce On Different Characters by Baillie, Joanna

Besmear, be-smēr′, v.t. to smear over: to bedaub: to pollute.

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

Thy foolish prattle all the minds, Whose cruel fate thee for a father gave, Besmear with flattery, Although, among themselves, at times, They laugh at thee.

From The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi by Townsend, Frederick