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

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Etymology

Origin of smudge

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

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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

He zoomed in on what resembled a smudge on the image, and spotted tiny text.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

I literally drove to the tattoo shop on Hollywood Boulevard with my arm out the window because I’m so clumsy and I didn’t want to smudge it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 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

She wipes at a smudge on my nose.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

It’ll leave little silver smudges like a disappointing eyeshadow.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2025

With unapologetic brio, Tortorici, cinematographer Massimiliano Kuveiller and editor Marco Costa empty out their tool kit of angles, splits, tracks, smudges, zooms, smashes, jumps, needle drops, montages and text cards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 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

The ink so fresh it smudges beneath his fingers.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

They’re the smart choice, even if you come across a slightly smudged crystal ball.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 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

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

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025

Her gardening gloves, still smudged with the last soil she’d ever lifted; a box of her favorite tea, which had long ago lost its peppermint scent; the thick candy-cane-striped kneesocks she wore in winter.

From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker

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

For Native people, smudging is the ceremony used for spiritual cleansing or blessing, but not all Indigenous people even use sage to smudge.

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

My dad wandered around to the other side of the car and checked out the view through the driver’s-side window after smudging some frost away with the heel of his hand.

From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez

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