Word.ws English Dictionary

blemished

blemished is the simple past and past participle of blemish.

Meaning of blemish

Verb

blemish (third-person singular simple present blemishes, present participle blemishing, simple past and past participle blemished)

  1. (transitive) To spoil the appearance of.
    • we see ordinarie examples by this licence which wonderfully blemisheth the authoritie and lustre of our law, never to stay upon one sentence, but to run from one to another judge, to decide one same case.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To tarnish (reputation, character, etc.); to defame.
    • There had nothing passed betwixt us that might blemish reputation.1600, Francis Vere, Commentaries of the Divers Pieces of Service

See all 4 meanings of blemish

Adjective

blemished (comparative more blemished, superlative most blemished)

  1. Having blemishes; flawed.
    • Stated sharply, today′s centers of higher learning are more blemished than superficial appearances suggest, and what often seems “democratic” is little more than contrived public displays.2001, Robert Weissberg, “Chapter 18: Academic Tyranny: The Tale and the Lessons”, in Stuart S. Nagel, editor, Handbook of Public Policy Evaluation, page 111
    • One of them in fact singled out Rebecca, not the marmoreal Rowena, as the novel′s most blemished character. “She is,” he complained, “too near perfection.[…]”2008, Ritchie Devon Watson, Normans and Saxons: Southern Race Mythology and the Intellectual History of the American Civil War, page 65

Forms of blemished

comparativemore blemished
superlativemost blemished

Questions about blemished

What does blemished mean?
Blemished means having blemishes; flawed.
What is blemished the simple past and past participle of?
Blemished is the simple past and past participle of blemish.
What part of speech is blemished?
Blemished is an adjective.

Words near blemished in the dictionary

  1. Blejoi
  2. Blekinge
  3. blem
  4. blemish
  5. blemishable
  6. blemished
  7. blemisher
  8. blemishers
  9. blemishes
  10. blemisheth
  11. blemishing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blemished (page history and authors); blemish (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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Cite this entry: “blemished.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blemished. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.