smudge

American  

[smuhj] / smʌdʒ /

noun

• smudges
  plural

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.

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verb (used with object)

• smudges,
  present (3rd person singular)
• smudged,
  past participle,  past
• smudging
  present participle

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)

• smudges,
  present (3rd person singular)
• smudged,
  past participle,  past
• smudging
  present participle

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 British  

/ 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

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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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• smudges
  plural

Participles

• smudging
  present
• smudged
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• smudge
  simple
• smudges
  simple
• have smudged
  perfect
• has smudged
  perfect
• am smudging
  progressive
• are smudging
  progressive
• is smudging
  progressive
• have been smudging
  perfect progressive
• has been smudging
  perfect progressive

Past

• smudged
  simple
• had smudged
  perfect
• was smudging
  progressive
• were smudging
  progressive
• had been smudging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will smudge
  simple
• will have smudged
  perfect
• will be smudging
  progressive
• will have been smudging
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smudge smudges smudged smudging

The 22-year-old now runs his own business scrubbing every sheet metal curve and interior corner of a vehicle until there isn’t a smudge or crumb left.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

In truth, there have been enough fingerprints on UCLA’s resurgence to leave countless smudge marks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025

You can distort a timeline, smudge the facts, and leave others out to pursue one angle in favor of another, depending on your agenda.

From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2025

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

Miig pointed with his chin to a dark smudge, only visible through the trees by the geometric slope against the slash of branch and leaf.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

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

There are brushstrokes and smudges, as if the world were realized in pastels.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 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

The rain blurred everything outside the window into gray and green smudges.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

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

Heyward co-hosted a fundraiser with his wife last week where Pratt was smudged with sage before standing in front of a giant amethyst geode to address about 125 people.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 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

Expect a lot of smudged mascara as the pair receive a send-off to remember.

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025

People were sweating and panting, their faces smudged with soot, their cheeks marked with tears.

From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate

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

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

On another, Djokovic tumbled behind the baseline, smudging his red shirt, blue shorts and skin with the rust-colored clay.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2023

She’s smudging mascara under her eyes to look exhausted and wan.

From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Related Words

• blacken
• daub
• spatter
• sully