smudge

[smuhj]

noun

1. a dirty mark or smear.

2. a smeary state.

3. a stifling smoke.

4. a smoky fire, especially one made for driving away mosquitoes or safeguarding fruit trees from frost.

verb (used with object)

smudged, smudging 

1. to mark with dirty streaks or smears.

2. to fill with smudge, as to drive away insects or protect fruit trees from frost.

verb (used without object)

smudged, smudging 

1. to form a smudge on something.

2. to become smudged.

   White shoes smudge easily.

3. to smolder or smoke; emit smoke, as a smudge pot.

smudge

/ smʌdʒ /

verb

1. to smear, blur, or soil or cause to do so

2. (tr) to fill (an area) with smoke in order to drive insects away or guard against frost

noun

1. a smear or dirty mark

2. a blurred form or area

   that smudge in the distance is a quarry

3. a smoky fire for driving insects away or protecting fruit trees or plants from frost

Other Word Forms

• smudgedly adverb
• smudgeless adjective
• unsmudged adjective
• smudgily adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of smudge¹

1400–50; late Middle English smogen (v.) < ?

Word History and Origins

Origin of smudge¹

C15: of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

The stolen balloon rose quickly—too quickly, according to Faucet—and the howls of its lone passenger could no longer be heard, as the balloon shrank to a tiny smudge of rainbow in the sky.

Read more on Literature

But those eyes were unmistakable—dark as twin smudges of pitch, dangerous as a pair of bottomless wells.

Read more on Literature

There were leaves in her hair, rips in her stockings, and dirt smudged across both cheeks.

Read more on Literature

Lady Constance had read and reread the society page so many times and dropped so many salty tears upon it, she now had black ink smudges all over her hands and face.

Read more on Literature

Instead of a funhouse mirror of what could be, it’s merely a smudged reflection of what is.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• blacken 
• daub 
• spatter 
• sully