smirch

American  

[smurch] / smɜrtʃ /

verb (used with object)

1. to discolor or soil; spot or smudge with or as with soot, dust, dirt, etc.

   Synonyms:

   dirty, smut, smear

   Antonyms:

   clean

2. to sully or tarnish (a person, reputation, character, etc.); disgrace; discredit.

   Synonyms:

   blot, taint

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noun

1. a dirty mark or smear, as of soot, dust, dirt, etc.

   Synonyms:

   smutch, smut, smudge

2. a stain or blot, as on reputation.

   Synonyms:

   taint

smirch British  

/ smɜːtʃ /

verb

1. to dirty; soil

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noun

1. the act of smirching or state of being smirched

2. a smear or stain

Other Word Forms

• smircher
  noun
• smirchless
  adjective
• unsmirched
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of smirch

First recorded in 1485–95; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smirch

"It's a smirch that never goes away.... If you dedicated yourself to serving the good, how would you cope with that?"

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2014

The Journal, as alert and sharp-eyed as a rooster, has a tabloid-moralistic habit of playing up any smirch involving a Milwaukeean.

From Time Magazine Archive

High Priest: John Thomas Taylor you be smirch with former association, making it appear that wrongs have been committed in the name of the Legion; that birds of a feather flock together.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nor, often, is his family, who may still regard mental illness as a shameful smirch and resist formal commitment to an institution until it is too late.

From Time Magazine Archive

I cannot believe that he would knowingly smirch the memory of his best friend; unless, poor old man, his mind is entirely gone.

From Oldfield A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century by Banks, Nancy Huston