smutch
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
-
a smudge or stain.
-
dirt, grime, or smut.
verb
noun
-
a mark; smudge
-
soot; dirt
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of smutch
1520–30; perhaps < Middle High German smutzen to smear; compare German Schmutz smut
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.
She hadn’t done anything to me, and the smutch of the mud against her blue gown — the prettiest dress I ever saw.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
This love is not so hard to smutch.
From The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems by William Morris
The palm is hardly clean— But here and there an ugly smutch appears.
From The Task and Other Poems by William Cowper
But thou hast valour, dear, too much For such as this; thou hast grave embassy, Given with thy birth; would'st thou thine honour smutch With coward failing?
From A Lover's Diary, Volume 1. by Gilbert Parker
In his address to the courteous reader he expresses his apprehensions that “some will smutch his labours with a scorne of his profession.”
From The Curiosities of Heraldry by Mark Antony Lower
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
