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.

Moments earlier, however, members of the supporting cast were smearing blood over each other’s torsos in a heavy-handed metaphor for their moral complicity in Jesus’s demise.

From New York Times • Jan. 22, 2024

In my 20s, Imelda Marcos, who was visiting our family after my father’s death in exile, told me that multiple public relations firms were smearing the Marcos name.

From Washington Post • May 4, 2022

Four million gallons of oil from a blown offshore well were smearing California beaches.

From Slate • Apr. 19, 2013

There were half a dozen of them, and men stripped to the waist were smearing the bottoms of the boats with boiling tar and pitch.

From The Flaming Forest by Curwood, James Oliver

About ten of the stoutest men were smearing their bodies with fat, over which they spread a yellowish red powder; the two between them covering their persons as with a second skin.

From Hair-Breadth Escapes The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa by Adams, H.C.