smear
to spread or daub (an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance) on or over something: to smear butter on bread.
to spread or daub an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance on: to smear bread with butter.
to stain, spot, or make dirty with something oily, greasy, viscous, or wet.
to sully, vilify, or soil (a reputation, good name, etc.).
to smudge or blur, as by rubbing: The signature was smeared.
Slang. to defeat decisively; overwhelm: They smeared the home team.
an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance, especially a dab of such a substance.
a stain, spot, or mark made by such a substance.
a smudge.
something smeared or to be smeared on a thing, as a glaze for pottery.
a small quantity of something spread thinly on a slide for microscopic examination.
vilification: a smear by a cheap gossip columnist.
Origin of smear
1Other words from smear
- smearer, noun
- un·smeared, adjective
Words Nearby smear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use smear in a sentence
Today, the vast majority of centers do not provide even basic women’s health care, like Pap smears, and many oppose the use of birth control.
Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Are Collecting Troves of Data That Could Be Weaponized Against Women | Vera Bergengruen | June 22, 2022 | TImeI’d laugh at smears of paint on walls and glitter ground into the rug.
Pro-Palestine activists have a long history of experiencing smear attacks targeting their places of employment or study.
Twitter Has Helped Build Social Movements Across the World. Now Organizers Fear For Its Future | Rebecca Chowdhury | April 29, 2022 | TimeIt practiced a smear campaign against leader Smalls, and reportedly spent over $4 million over the course of years to delegitimize the unionization process.
Just the right amount of torsional rigidity lets it bite deeply on edge but release in a smear.
Runners-Up Review: The All-Mountain Skis That Almost Made Our 2022 Winter Buyer’s Guide | agintzler | December 17, 2021 | Outside Online
Robyn was in her senior year of college in January 2008 when she found out she had an abnormal pap smear.
Erica was 22 when her doctor called her and said she had an abnormal pap smear.
A vicious Twitter smear campaign against the Harry Potter author may have been the work of secret agents, says one British pol.
Did MI5 Spies Troll J.K. Rowling Over Scottish Independence? | The Telegraph | June 28, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMemorials are a crimson smear across the days—March 14, April 8, May 6, that marked our bloody spring of 2007.
The bias to protect the Clinton and smear their accusers, he added, still exists.
And then Lamb began to taste something like panic even as the first neon signs began to smear the wintry shadows.
If you will look at the paper you will observe a slight smear of blood.
Boy Scouts in the Philippines | G. Harvey RalphsonAnd still at times she would smear him with the name of black (to his delight when he learned the reason).
Margaret Ogilvy | J. M. BarrieA thin stream of blood ran from his mouth and dribbled down his chin and coagulated in a sticky smear upon the gun stock.
The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. CobbThe pass had broadened into a valley, and a flat blue smear on the horizon told of earth and sky meeting beyond a plain.
The Terms of Surrender | Louis Tracy
British Dictionary definitions for smear
/ (smɪə) /
to bedaub or cover with oil, grease, etc
to rub over or apply thickly
to rub so as to produce a smudge
to slander
US slang to defeat completely
(intr) to be or become smeared or dirtied
a dirty mark or smudge
a slanderous attack
(as modifier): smear tactics
a preparation of blood, secretions, etc, smeared onto a glass slide for examination under a microscope
Origin of smear
1Derived forms of smear
- smearer, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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