Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use smear in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Smear means to spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing. Example: “The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.”

Examples of smear by meaning

verbTo spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

  • The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.
  • Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes.1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 778
  • A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158

verbTo cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.

  • She smeared her lips with lipstick.

verbTo make something dirty.

  • His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,2016, Ali Smith, chapter 2, in Autumn, Penguin, published 2017

verb(of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.

  • a rust spot smearing the back of the sink1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 6, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Knopf, published 1989, page 168
  • Wet leaves smeared the pavement.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 323

verbTo cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.

  • Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 5, p. 419
  • Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 56

verbTo become messy or not clear by being spread.

  • The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.

verbTo write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.

  • ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 2, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, New York: Fawcett, published 1971, page 84
  • smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311

verbTo cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.

  • They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Penguin, published 1994, Chapter 2.1, p. 73

More sentences with smear

  • They took this three-second sound bite and ran with it to try to smear me.From the entry run with
  • His opponent said it was all a smear campaign to make him look bad in the eyes of the voters.From the entry smear campaign
  • The petty misdeeds of his youth came back to haunt him when he ran for political office and his character was smeared.From the entry misdeed
  • Snarge can even be as small as a rusty-red smear on the nose of an airliner.2022 April 14, Jason Bittel, “‘Snarge’ Happens, and Studying It Makes Your Flight Safer”, in New York Times, archived from the original on…. From the entry snarge
  • I was advised that I could save money on Brasso by smearing my door-knobs with ketchup.2018 September 13, Peter Barron, “Grandad at Large: Caught red-handed”, in The Northern Echo, Darlington, County Durham, →OCLC, page 49…. From the entry door-knob
  • The thin smears were fixed with Methanol and the thick smears were dehaemoglobinized with distilled water.2016 January 20, “Differential Diagnosis of Malaria on Truelab Uno ®, a Portable, Real-Time, MicroPCR Device for Point-Of-Care…. From the entry dehaemoglobinized
  • It is normal for politicians to faultfind each other including character smearing.2015, Roaimah Omar, Hasan Bahrom, Geraldine de Mello, Islamic perspectives relating to business, arts, culture and communication. From the entry faultfind
  • There was a blood smear across her mouth, skewed like lipstick applied by a drunken hand.2012, Randy Chandler, Edward M. Erdelac, David James Keaton, Deadcore: 4 Hardcore Zombie Novellas, →ISBN, page 63. From the entry mombie
  • One way to help prevent excess graphite from smearing is through the use of eraser dust.2012, Dennis Dorn, Mark Shanda, Drafting for the Theatre, →ISBN, page 34. From the entry eraser dust
  • Tomorrow there would be smeared handmarks on the smooth painted plaster.2011, Harper Allen, Protector with a Past. From the entry handmark
  • Every third day it spewed out soot balls that left black smears wherever they fell.2008, Alexandra Morton, Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, →ISBN, page 128. From the entry soot ball
  • The lighting in the corridor just dabbles of arcs, afterthoughts, smears.2007, Constantine Sult, chapter 1, in The Murder of Linen, [United States]: Brown Paper Publishing, page 1. From the entry afterthought
  • She smeared it carelessly across her wide mouth and handed it to me.2007, D. M. Ross, chapter 12, in The Holy Bad, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 52. From the entry lippy
  • Or do you feel beautiful—I ask you—if you don’t get your face all smeared with soot?2005, Plautus, translated by Amy Richlin, “Towelheads (Poenulus)”, in Rome and the Mysterious Orient: Three Plays by Plautus (The Joan…. From the entry beauteosity
  • The bathroom is smeared with fingerprints and painted dingy white, not the most flattering light.1988, Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye. From the entry dinge
  • Before you know it, there's such a big stink that it's smeared all over the newspapers.1987, Sholem Aleichem [pseudonym; Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich], “[The Railway Stories] The Man from Buenos Aires”, in Hillel Halkin…. From the entry cook someone's goose
  • Noskote and lipcoat were smeared on his face, but it didn't matter.1987, Ann M Martin, Boy-Crazy Stacey. From the entry lipcoat
  • M. wearing firemen's blue jackets and jumpers and with their faces smeared as though with engine grease.1931 July 31, “Trio Rob Ohio Bank; Pose as Rail Firemen […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN…. From the entry Odessa
  • To his mind the word rompers connotated a garment extraneously smeared, as this one.1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 3, in The Lees of Happiness. From the entry connotate
  • She felt vulnerable, like sheʼd just gotten her first Pap smear and didnʼt know how invasive it would feel.2021, Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl, Bloomsbury, page 344. From the entry pap smear
  • Spinning back, the world looks for a moment as if someone has taken an oilbrush and smeared it across everything.2021, David Deutsch, Once Before Sunset. From the entry oilbrush
  • Katie wiped the smear of cow grease from her cheek.2020, Steve Oates, The Promise of the Witch. From the entry cow grease
  • Wearing gloves and chemical eye protection, cover the smear with a strip of bibulous paper cut slightly smaller than the slide.2015, Michael J. Leboffe, Microbiology: Laboratory Theory and Application, page 217. From the entry bibulous
  • Smear the peanut butter, fluff, and a bit of the nutella all over, even to the very edge of the wrap.2014 December 18, “Fluffernutter and Nutella Yule Log”, in The Lovely Crazy. From the entry crunch
  • I go back to the kitchen and find a knife, still smeared with sweet potato and bits of pheasant meat.2013, Sherri L. Smith, chapter 12, in Orleans, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, part 2 (Freesteader), page 116. From the entry sweet potato
  • He wiped away a palmload of blood, looked at it unbelievingly, and then smeared it on his shirt.2009 November 10, Stephen King, Under the Dome: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 41. From the entry palmload
  • I don’t recall people eating much in pubs beyond bangers on sticks, stolid pork pie, Ryvita spears smeared with Marmite.2009 October 31, Gina Mallet, “Recalling classics”, in National Post, Don Mills, Ontario, page TO 4. From the entry balloon juice

Meaning of smear

  1. verb To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
  2. verb To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
  3. verb To make something dirty.

Full definition of smear

Questions about smear in a sentence

How do you use smear in a sentence?
Smear is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.”
What is a short sentence with smear?
“Wet leaves smeared the pavement.”
What does smear mean?
Smear means to spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smear (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use smear in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/smear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.