smear

present singular third person smears · participle present smearing · participle past smeared · past smeared

1. transitiveTo spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

   The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.

   4 more examples

   In general, all bodies whose surfaces are even will […] stick to each other, and if a liquid be smeared over either surface, their cohesion will be still the stronger.

   1776, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 5, in A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, page 74

   Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them.

   1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 778

   A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158

   Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.

   2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, New York: Penguin

   Synonyms: apply, daub, plaster, spread

2. transitiveTo cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.

   She smeared her lips with lipstick.

   3 more examples

   Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   […] a Vessel of huge bulk, Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth, Smeard round with Pitch,

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, lines 725-727

   […] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.

   1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Vintage, published 2010, page 53

   Synonyms: bedaub, coat, cover, daub, layer, plaster

3. transitiveTo make something dirty.

   […] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,

   1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 11, in North and South, volume 2, London: Chapman and Hall, page 147

   2 more examples

   A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.

   1583, Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, London: George Bishop, Sermon 41, p. 246

   His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,

   2016, Ali Smith, chapter 2, in Autumn, Penguin, published 2017

   Synonyms: besmirch, dirty, soil, sully, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty

4. transitive(of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.

   Wet leaves smeared the pavement.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 323

   2 more examples

   a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin

   1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XVIII, page 263

   a rust spot smearing the back of the sink

   1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 6, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Knopf, published 1989, page 168

5. derogatorytransitiveTo damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.

   The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.

   3 more examples

   May everlasting shame consume The memory of those who tried To befoul and smear th’ exalted name Of one who spurned them in his pride.

   1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 164

   1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82, The imperialist foreigners then in the offices of the Nation Newspapers would not allow the African staff to review it. They handled it themselves in order to smear the book and its author and his celebration of Mau Mau resistance.

   They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.

   2018, Richard Powers, “Neelay Mehta”, in The Overstory, New York: Norton

   Synonyms: badmouth, besmirch, defame, sully, vilify, assassinate, asperse, backbite

6. transitiveTo cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.

   Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.

   1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 5, p. 419

   2 more examples

   When she had entered two or three laborious items in the account-book, Jip would walk over the page, wagging his tail, and smear them all out.

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 457

   Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.

   2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 56

   Synonyms: blur, smudge

7. intransitiveTo become messy or not clear by being spread.

   The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.

   Synonyms: smudge

8. transitiveTo write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.

   ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops

   1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 2, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, New York: Fawcett, published 1971, page 84

   2 more examples

   smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy

   1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311

   […] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.

   2001, Richard Flanagan, “The Freshwater Crayfish”, in Gould’s Book of Fish, New York: Grove Press, published 2002

9. transitiveTo cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.

   small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood

   1864, Richard F. Burton, chapter 3, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,, volume 1, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 43

   2 more examples

   the fences and outhouses built of barrel-staves and parts of boxes, all, if I am fortunate, smeared a bluish green

   1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral”, in Al Que Quiere!, Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 15

   They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.

   1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Penguin, published 1994, Chapter 2.1, p. 73

10. transitiveTo rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.

    […] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.

    1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 37

    2 more examples

    With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,

    1979, William Styron, chapter 3, in Sophie’s Choice, New York: Random House, page 58

    […] what was it with all those village people who could not stand on their feet without reaching out to smear their palm on a wall?

    2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chapter 6, in Americanah, New York: Knopf, page 74

11. transitiveTo attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.

    1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323, […] she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.

    2 more examples

    He had […] a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck, with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke:

    1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198

    The boatman rowed short and hard […], only pausing at moments swiftly to smear the sweat from his face with an old rag he kept on the bench beside him.

    1926, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in The Plumed Serpent, London: Heinemann, published 1955, page 85

12. climbingTo climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.

plural smears

1. countableuncountableA mark made by smearing.

   This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.

   4 more examples

   A smear of decisive lead-coloured paint had been laid on to obliterate Henchard’s name, though its letters dimly loomed through like ships in a fog.

   1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in The Mayor of Casterbridge, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, page 108

   Vast avalanches had left their dirty smears on the opposing slopes,

   1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet, London: Macmillan, Part 2, Chapter 8

   she bought a couple of rolls filled with a thin smear of potted meat for her breakfast

   1952, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann

   I could see the roofs of the town on the horizon, and farther off and higher up, a tiny silver ship propped motionless on a smear of pale sea.

   2005, John Banville, The Sea, London: Picador, Part 2, p. 228

   Synonyms: streak

   1. countableuncountablecookingA presentation of a sauce, purée or other food item, which is placed in a dollop and spread across the plate.

      Synonyms: streak, swoosh

2. countableuncountableA false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.

   smear campaign

   2 more examples

   I should have held him quite beneath my Notice, as is all he utters, but that the Appetite of Slander, in many, is too predominant; and, ’tis possible, when the filthiest Fellow throws a Profusion of Dirt, some may chance to stick, if not timely thrown off; I shall endeavour therefore, to wipe away the sooty Smears of this Chimney-sweeper, by relating a simple Fact, which will, I flatter myself, amply confute the malicious Tales of this unprovoked, rancorous Mortal:

   1752, Theophilus Cibber, A Lick at a Liar, London: R. Griffiths, page 7

   “I’d rather not [read the newspaper article]. It’s probably full of falsification and smear. The yellow journalists doubtlessly suggested all sorts of lip-smacking innuendoes.”

   1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 13, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, page 289

   Synonyms: calumny, slander, slur, mudslinging

3. countableuncountablebiologyA preparation to be examined under a microscope, made by spreading a thin layer of a substance (such as blood, bacterial culture) on a slide.

   Synonyms: squash

4. countableuncountablemedicineA Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).

   I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon for a smear.

   Synonyms: cervical smear, Pap test

5. uncountablebroadcastingAny of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.

   In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.

   1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section

   1 more example

   Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.

   1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

6. countableuncountableclimbingA maneuver in which a shoe is placed onto a holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact with the rock.
7. countableuncountableentertainmentA rough glissando in jazz music.