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View synonyms for smear

smear

[ smeer ]

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

  1. an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance, especially a dab of such a substance.
  2. a stain, spot, or mark made by such a substance.
  3. a smudge.
  4. something smeared or to be smeared on a thing, as a glaze for pottery.
  5. a small quantity of something spread thinly on a slide for microscopic examination.
  6. vilification:

    a smear by a cheap gossip columnist.

smear

/ smɪə /

verb

  1. to bedaub or cover with oil, grease, etc
  2. to rub over or apply thickly
  3. to rub so as to produce a smudge
  4. to slander
  5. slang.
    to defeat completely
  6. intr to be or become smeared or dirtied


noun

  1. a dirty mark or smudge
    1. a slanderous attack
    2. ( as modifier )

      smear tactics

  2. a preparation of blood, secretions, etc, smeared onto a glass slide for examination under a microscope

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Derived Forms

  • ˈsmearer, noun

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Other Words From

  • smearer noun
  • un·smeared adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of smear1

before 900; (v.) Middle English smeren, smirien to rub with fat, anoint, Old English smirian, smerian, smerwan; cognate with Dutch smeren, German schmieren, Old Norse smyrja, smyrwa; (noun) in current senses derivative of the v.; compare obsolete smear fat, grease, ointment, Middle English smere, Old English smeoru, cognate with Dutch smear, German Schmer, Old Norse smjǫr grease, Greek smýris rubbing powder; emery

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Word History and Origins

Origin of smear1

Old English smeoru (n); related to Old Norse smjör fat, Old High German smero, Greek muron ointment

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Example Sentences

Today, the vast majority of centers do not provide even basic women’s health care, like Pap smears, and many oppose the use of birth control.

From TIme

I’d laugh at smears of paint on walls and glitter ground into the rug.

From Time

Pro-Palestine activists have a long history of experiencing smear attacks targeting their places of employment or study.

From Time

It practiced a smear campaign against leader Smalls, and reportedly spent over $4 million over the course of years to delegitimize the unionization process.

From Time

Just the right amount of torsional rigidity lets it bite deeply on edge but release in a smear.

Robyn was in her senior year of college in January 2008 when she found out she had an abnormal pap smear.

Erica was 22 when her doctor called her and said she had an abnormal pap smear.

A vicious Twitter smear campaign against the Harry Potter author may have been the work of secret agents, says one British pol.

Memorials are a crimson smear across the days—March 14, April 8, May 6, that marked our bloody spring of 2007.

The bias to protect the Clinton and smear their accusers, he added, still exists.

And then Lamb began to taste something like panic even as the first neon signs began to smear the wintry shadows.

If you will look at the paper you will observe a slight smear of blood.

And still at times she would smear him with the name of black (to his delight when he learned the reason).

A thin stream of blood ran from his mouth and dribbled down his chin and coagulated in a sticky smear upon the gun stock.

The pass had broadened into a valley, and a flat blue smear on the horizon told of earth and sky meeting beyond a plain.

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gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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