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Smear

 - 7 dictionary results

smear

  [smeer]
Use Smear in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to spread or daub (an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance) on or over something: to smear butter on bread.
2. to spread or daub an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance on: to smear bread with butter.
3. to stain, spot, or make dirty with something oily, greasy, viscous, or wet.
4. to sully, vilify, or soil (a reputation, good name, etc.).
5. to smudge or blur, as by rubbing: The signature was smeared.
6. Slang. to defeat decisively; overwhelm: They smeared the home team.
–noun
7. an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance, esp. a dab of such a substance.
8. a stain, spot, or mark made by such a substance.
9. a smudge.
10. something smeared or to be smeared on a thing, as a glaze for pottery.
11. a small quantity of something spread thinly on a slide for microscopic examination.
12. vilification: a smear by a cheap gossip columnist.
Origin:
bef. 900; (v.) ME smeren, smirien to rub with fat, anoint, OE smirian, smerian, smerwan; c. D smeren, G schmieren, ON smyrja, smyrwa; (n.) in current senses deriv. of the v.; cf. obs. smear fat, grease, ointment, ME smere, OE smeoru, c. D smear, G Schmer, ON smjǫr grease, Gk smýris rubbing powder; see emery

Related forms:
smearer, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Smear
smear   (smîr)   
v.   smeared, smear·ing, smears

v.   tr.

    1. To spread or daub with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.

    2. To apply by spreading or daubing: smeared suntan lotion on my face and arms.

  2. To stain by or as if by spreading or daubing with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.

  3. To stain or attempt to destroy the reputation of; vilify: political enemies who smeared his name.

  4. Slang To defeat utterly; smash.

v.   intr.
To be or become stained or dirtied.
n.  

  1. A mark made by smearing; a spot or blot.

  2. A substance to be spread on a surface.

  3. Biology A sample, as of blood or bacterial cells, spread on a slide for microscopic examination or on the surface of a culture medium.

    1. Vilification or slander.

    2. A vilifying or slanderous remark.


[Middle English smeren, to anoint, from Old English smerian.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
smear

  1. tv.
    to defeat someone; to outscore someone. : They said they would smear us, but we smeared them.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

smear  (v.)
O.E. smerian "to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.," from P.Gmc. *smerthan (cf. O.N. smyrva, Dan. smøre, Swed. smörja, Du. smeren, O.H.G. smirwen, Ger. schmieren "to smear"), from PIE *smeru- "grease" (cf. Gk. myron "unguent, balsam," O.Ir. smi(u)r "marrow," O.E. smeoru "fat, grease"). Sense of "assault a public reputation with unsubstantiated charges" is from 1879. Noun meaning "mark or stain left by smearing" is first recorded 1611; sense of "small quantity prepared for microscopic examination" is from 1903.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1smear
Pronunciation: 'smi(&)r
Function: noun
: material spread on a surface (as of a microscopic slide); also : apreparation made by spreading material on a surface smear> —see PAP SMEAR

Main Entry: 2smear
Function: transitive verb
: to prepare as a smear for microscopic examination : make a smear of
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

smear (smēr)
n.
A sample, as of blood or bacterial cells, spread thinly on a slide and usually stained for microscopic examination or applied to the surface of a culture medium.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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