smear

/smɪə(ɹ)/US/smiɚ/

smear verb: to spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

Image: Martin Priestley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

smear (third-person singular simple present smears, present participle smearing, simple past and past participle smeared)

(transitive) To 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.
- In general, all bodies whose surfaces are even will […] stick to each other, and if a liquid be smeared over either surface, their cohesion will be still the stronger.1776, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 5, in A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, page 74
Synonyms:

apply, daub, plaster, spread
(transitive) To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
- She smeared her lips with lipstick.
- Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
  They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
  The sleepy grooms with blood.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Synonyms:

bedaub, coat, cover, daub, layer, plaster
(transitive) To make something dirty.
- A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.1583, Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, London: George Bishop, Sermon 41, p. 246
- […] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 11, in North and South, volume 2, London: Chapman and Hall, page 147
Synonyms:

besmirch, dirty, soil, sully, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen
(transitive) (of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.
- a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XVIII, page 263
- 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
(derogatory, transitive) To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.
- The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.
- May everlasting shame consume
  The memory of those who tried
  To befoul and smear th’ exalted name
  Of one who spurned them in his pride.1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 164
Synonyms:

badmouth, besmirch, defame, sully, vilify, assassinate, asperse, backbite, befoul, belibel
(transitive) To cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.
- When she had entered two or three laborious items in the account-book, Jip would walk over the page, wagging his tail, and smear them all out.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 457
- 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
Synonyms:

blur, smudge
(intransitive) To become messy or not clear by being spread.
- The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.
Synonyms:

smudge
(transitive) To 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
(transitive) To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.
- small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood1864, Richard F. Burton, chapter 3, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,, volume 1, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 43
- the fences and outhouses
  built of barrel-staves
  and parts of boxes, all,
  if I am fortunate,
  smeared a bluish green1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral”, in Al Que Quiere!, Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 15
(transitive) To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.
- […] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 37
- With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,1979, William Styron, chapter 3, in Sophie’s Choice, New York: Random House, page 58
(transitive) To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.
- He had […] a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck, with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke:1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198
- The boatman rowed short and hard […], only pausing at moments swiftly to smear the sweat from his face with an old rag he kept on the bench beside him.1926, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in The Plumed Serpent, London: Heinemann, published 1955, page 85
To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.

Noun

smear (countable and uncountable, plural smears)

A mark made by smearing.
- This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.
- A smear of decisive lead-coloured paint had been laid on to obliterate Henchard’s name, though its letters dimly loomed through like ships in a fog.1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in The Mayor of Casterbridge, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, page 108
Synonyms:

streak
1. A presentation of a sauce, purée or other food item, which is placed in a dollop and spread across the plate.
A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.
- smear campaign
- I should have held him quite beneath my Notice, as is all he utters, but that the Appetite of Slander, in many, is too predominant; and, ’tis possible, when the filthiest Fellow throws a Profusion of Dirt, some may chance to stick, if not timely thrown off; I shall endeavour therefore, to wipe away...1752, Theophilus Cibber, A Lick at a Liar, London: R. Griffiths, page 7
Synonyms:

calumny, slander, slur, mudslinging
A preparation to be examined under a microscope, made by spreading a thin layer of a substance (such as blood, bacterial culture) on a slide.

Synonyms:

squash
A Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).
- I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon for a smear.
Synonyms:

cervical smear, Pap test
(uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.
- In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section
- Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports
A maneuver in which a shoe is placed onto a holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact with the rock.
A rough glissando in jazz music.

smear meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

smear in Hindi

to spread (a surface) with a substance: मखाना makhānā

smear in Tamil

to spread (a substance): பூசு pūcu, இழிசு iḻicu, தடவு taṭavu

smear in Urdu

ساننا, گوندھنا, رنگ لگانا, دھبہ لگانا, داغدار کرنا

More languagesFewer languages

smear in Bengali: মাখা makha, আবির খেলা abir khela
smear in Telugu: పాము pāmu
smear in Malayalam: പുരട്ടൽ puraṭṭal, പുരട്ടുക puraṭṭuka, പൂശുക pūśuka, തേയ്ക്കുക tēykkuka
smear in Kannada: ಲೇಪಿಸು lēpisu, ಒರಸು orasu
smear in Gujarati: સ્મીયર કરવા માટે, સ્મીઅર કરવા માટે
smear in Odia: ସ୍ମିଅର କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ସ୍ମିଅର୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ସ୍ମିଅର କରିବା
smear in Sanskrit: लिम्पति limpati
smear in Sinhala: ගානවා gānawā
smear in Nepali: दल्नु dalnu
smear in Tagalog: kulapol
smear in Arabic: دَهَنَ dahana, لَوَّثَ lawwaṯa
smear in Thai: ทา taa, ป้าย bpâai, ปาด bpàat, ป้ายสี bpâai-sǐi

Examples of smear in a sentence

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:
Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, New York: Penguin:
[…] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Vintage, published 2010, page 53:

All 40 example sentences with smear

Synonyms of smear

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of smear

Forms of smear

Verb
third-person singular present	smears
present participle	smearing
past participle	smeared
past	smeared
Noun
plural	smears

Past tense of smear: smeared

Plural of smear: smears

Origin of smear

From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *smirwijan, from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną. Doublet of schmear. Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren (“to smear, lubricate”), Low German smeren, German schmieren (“to smear, lubricate”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål smøre (“to lubricate”), Norwegian Nynorsk smørja (“to lubricate”), Swedish smörja (“to grease”), Faroese and Icelandic smyrja.

Words formed from smear

Phrases with smear

Words that rhyme with smear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about smear

What does smear mean?: Smear means to spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
What is smear in Hindi?: Smear in Hindi is मखाना (makhānā). See Smear meaning in Hindi.
How do you use smear in a sentence?: Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes.
What part of speech is smear?: Smear can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce smear?: Smear is pronounced /smɪə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the past tense of smear?: The past tense of smear is smeared.

Words near smear in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-smear.ogg.

Cite this entry: “smear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.