Word.ws English Dictionary

besmirk

besmirk verb: to besmirch; sully; befoul.

Verb

besmirk (third-person singular simple present besmirks, present participle besmirking, simple past and past participle besmirked)

  1. (transitive) To besmirch; sully; befoul.
    • A mighty people, strong, reliant, free, / With souls sustained by foulest sorcery / Of noxious demagogues whose wiles disguise / Their sanguine lusts, and whose polluted lies / Besmirk the fairest form of Liberty!1907, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine - Volume 30 - Page 584
    • ESPN or some high-wattage radio station, they wouldn't besmirk their own hands, they'd sub it out to lowlifes.2011, Libby Sternberg, Gary Alexander, Lunch Reads Volume 2

Forms of besmirk

third-person singular presentbesmirks
present participlebesmirking
past participlebesmirked
pastbesmirked

Origin of besmirk

Variant of besmirch, as if be- + smirk.

Questions about besmirk

What does besmirk mean?
Besmirk means to besmirch; sully; befoul.
What part of speech is besmirk?
Besmirk is a verb.
What is the past tense of besmirk?
The past tense of besmirk is besmirked.

Words near besmirk in the dictionary

  1. besmirchers
  2. besmirches
  3. besmirching
  4. besmirchment
  5. besmirchments
  6. besmirk
  7. besmitten
  8. besmocked
  9. besmog
  10. besmogged
  11. besmogging

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: besmirk (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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