smudge
Americannoun
-
smudges
plural
-
a dirty mark or smear.
-
a smeary state.
-
a stifling smoke.
-
a smoky fire, especially one made for driving away mosquitoes or safeguarding fruit trees from frost.
verb (used with object)
-
smudges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smudged,
past participle, past
-
smudging
present participle
-
to mark with dirty streaks or smears.
-
to fill with smudge, as to drive away insects or protect fruit trees from frost.
verb (used without object)
-
smudges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
smudged,
past participle, past
-
smudging
present participle
-
to form a smudge on something.
-
to become smudged.
White shoes smudge easily.
-
to smolder or smoke; emit smoke, as a smudge pot.
verb
-
to smear, blur, or soil or cause to do so
-
(tr) to fill (an area) with smoke in order to drive insects away or guard against frost
noun
-
a smear or dirty mark
-
a blurred form or area
that smudge in the distance is a quarry
-
a smoky fire for driving insects away or protecting fruit trees or plants from frost
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
smudgesimple
-
smudgessimple
-
have smudgedperfect
-
has smudgedperfect
-
am smudgingprogressive
-
are smudgingprogressive
-
is smudgingprogressive
-
have been smudgingperfect progressive
-
has been smudgingperfect progressive
Past
-
smudgedsimple
-
had smudgedperfect
-
was smudgingprogressive
-
were smudgingprogressive
-
had been smudgingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of smudge
1400–50; late Middle English smogen (v.) < ?
Explanation
When you smudge something, you smear or blur it in a messy way. If you smudge your sister's drawing after she worked so hard on it, she'll be furious. You might smudge dirt across your face when you wipe your nose after digging in the garden—and the dirty mark itself can also be called a smudge. Another kind of smudge is a smoky fire that can be used for several purposes: to disguise your location, to keep outdoor plants or trees warm, or to repel insects. The container in which a smudge is built is called a smudge pot.
Vocabulary lists containing smudge
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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.
See Examples For:
On Christmas the following year, he noticed what he thought was a smudge on his glasses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
“It’s right here,” glaciologist Alison Criscitiello says, pointing to a nearly invisible gray smudge behind the glass, on a 5-foot-long, 1,550-year-old bisected cylinder of ice.
From Slate ● May 8, 2026
While we followed the police, we could see the boat – a thin black smudge on a milky sea – to our left.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2025
The coolest collegiate women’s basketball player on the planet routinely produces plays so picturesque, every smudge is briefly met with a pained annoyance that inspires her to retrieve the brush and swirl anew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2024
Mr. Lemoncello pointed to a smudge on Charles’s shirt.
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
It’ll leave little silver smudges like a disappointing eyeshadow.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2025
If smudges in the sky are your thing, sure, fine.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2024
And the dark smudges of exhaustion below Kravchenko's eyes made him look like he was wearing stage paint.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2024
“They told me to go on a computer, but the computers are dirty. People are touching those computers. You can see the smudges, the dark spots. Like they never clean them.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
Color smudges streak around an old cameo of Daniela.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
A smudged fingerprint on the rear-view mirror has also never been matched.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Either way, the onetime roommates and bandmates pioneered a discomfiting broken-doll aesthetic of smudged eyeliner, smeared lipstick and plastic barrettes clipped to hanks of bleached-out hair.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
"Intensity mapping is like viewing the same scene through a smudged plane window: you get a blurrier picture, but you capture all the light and not just the brightest spots."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 8, 2026
Neytiri, her face smudged with black mourning makeup, has turned toward prayer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
Her white apron is smudged with tomato-sauce sludge.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
The two women move around the room, burning herbs and shaking shamanic rattles while singing and chanting in a purification ritual known as "smudging".
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2025
While this wellness practice has been popularized by wellness gurus and witchy social media influencers, smudging sage originated with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2024
Previous attempts at putting the magazine on microfilm had resulted in barely legible pages marred by heavy black smudging, with some parts of pages missing or damaged.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 29, 2023
Researchers believe these early artists selected charcoal because it was the perfect medium, ideal for the smudging and blending techniques used in cave paintings.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2023
The next night, Shawn came into my room unexpectedly and found me smudging my eyelashes with Audrey’s old mascara.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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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.
