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 Aimée G. Leffingwel McKenzie
Drabble, drab′l, v.t. to besmear with mud and water.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
The women besmear themselves with the most disgusting filth.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia by Sir James George Frazer
In all history it has been shown that he who seeks to besmear others usually leaves the greatest amount of mud on himself.
From My Attainment of the Pole by Frederick A. Cook
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 Percy Keese Fitzhugh
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
