smearing

Verb

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

1. (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.

   Synonyms:

   apply, daub, plaster, spread

2. (transitive) To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
   • She smeared her lips with lipstick.

   Synonyms:

   bedaub, coat, cover, daub, layer, plaster

3. (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

   Synonyms:

   besmirch, dirty, soil, sully, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen

4. (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
5. (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.

   Synonyms:

   badmouth, besmirch, defame, sully, vilify, assassinate, asperse, backbite, befoul, belibel

6. (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

   Synonyms:

   blur, smudge

See all 20 meanings of smear