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smear - 8 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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Smear

Smear\ (sm[=e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Smeared (sm[=e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Smearing.] [OE. smeren, smerien, AS. smierwan, smyrwan, fr. smeoru fat, grease; akin to D. smeren, OHG. smirwen, G. schmieren, Icel. smyrja to anoint. See Smear, n.]

1. To overspread with anything unctuous, viscous, or adhesive; to daub; as, to smear anything with oil. "Smear the sleepy grooms with blood." --Shak.

2. To soil in any way; to contaminate; to pollute; to stain morally; as, to be smeared with infamy. --Shak.

Smear

Smear\, n. [OE. smere,. smeoru fat, grease; akin to D. smeer, G. schmeer, OHG. smero, Icel. smj["o]r, Sw. & Dan. sm["o]r butter, Goth. sma['i]r[thorn]r fatness, smarna dung; cf. Lith. smarsas fat. Cf. Smirch.]

1. A fat, oily substance; oinment. --Johnson.

2. Hence, a spot made by, or as by, an unctuous or adhesive substance; a blot or blotch; a daub; a stain.

Slow broke the morn, All damp and rolling vapor, with no sun, But in its place a moving smear of light. --Alexander Smith.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : smear
Spanish: untar, embadurnar,
German: schmieren,
Japanese: 塗りつける
More Translations »

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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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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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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