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, Low German smeren, German schmieren.

• (UK) enPR: smî(r), IPA^(key): /smɪə(ɹ)/
• (US) enPR: smîr, IPA^(key): /smiɚ/, IPA^(key): /smɪɚ/

• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

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.

   Synonyms: apply, daub, plaster, spread

   The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.

   • 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 5, in A Survey of Experimental Philosophy‎, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, page 74:

     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.

   • 1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 778:

     Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them.

   • 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous‎, New York: Penguin:

     Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.

2. (transitive) To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.

   Synonyms: bedaub, coat, cover, daub, layer, plaster

   She smeared her lips with lipstick.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
     They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
     The sleepy grooms with blood.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC, lines 725-727:

     […] a Vessel of huge bulk,
     Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth,
     Smeard round with Pitch,

   • 1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man‎, London: Vintage, published 2010, page 53:

     […] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.

3. (transitive) To make something dirty.

   Synonyms: besmirch, dirty, soil, sully

   • 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:

     A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.

   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 11, in North and South‎, volume 2, London: Chapman and Hall, page 147:

     […] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,

   • 2016, Ali Smith, chapter 2, in Autumn, Penguin, published 2017:

     His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,

4. (transitive) (of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XVIII, page 263:

     a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin

   • 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 6, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant‎, New York: Knopf, published 1989, page 168:

     a rust spot smearing the back of the sink

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty , 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 323:

     Wet leaves smeared the pavement.

5. (transitive) To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.

   Synonyms: badmouth, besmirch, defame, sully, vilify

   The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.

   • 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 164:

     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.

   • 1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82,

     The imperialist foreigners then in the offices of the Nation Newspapers would not allow the African staff to review it. They handled it themselves in order to smear the book and its author and his celebration of Mau Mau resistance.

   • 2018, Richard Powers, “Neelay Mehta”, in The Overstory‎, New York: Norton:

     They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.

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

   Synonyms: blur, smudge

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1850, →OCLC, page 457:

     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.

   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 5, p. 419:

     Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.

   • 2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain‎, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 56:

     Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.

7. (intransitive) To become messy or not clear by being spread.

   Synonym: smudge

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

8. (transitive) To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.
   • 1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 2, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet‎, New York: Fawcett, published 1971, page 84:

     ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops

   • 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise‎, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311:

     smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy

   • 2001, Richard Flanagan, “The Freshwater Crayfish”, in Gould’s Book of Fish‎, New York: Grove Press, published 2002:

     […] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.

9. (transitive) To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.
   • 1864, Richard F. Burton, chapter 3, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,‎, volume 1, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 43:

     small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood

   • 1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral”, in Al Que Quiere!‎, Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 15:

     the fences and outhouses
     built of barrel-staves
     and parts of boxes, all,
     if I am fortunate,
     smeared a bluish green

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy‎, Penguin, published 1994, Chapter 2.1, p. 73:

     They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.

10. (transitive) To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.
    • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations , volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, , published October 1861, →OCLC, page 37:

      […] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.

    • 1979, William Styron, chapter 3, in Sophie’s Choice‎, New York: Random House, page 58:

      With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,

    • 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chapter 6, in Americanah‎, New York: Knopf, page 74:

      […] what was it with all those village people who could not stand on their feet without reaching out to smear their palm on a wall?

11. (transitive) To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. , volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 198:

      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:

    • 1926, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in The Plumed Serpent‎, London: Heinemann, published 1955, page 85:

      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.

    • 1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323,

      she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.

12. (climbing) To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.

• asmear
• besmear
• smearer
• smear the queer

smear (countable and uncountable, plural smears)

1. A mark made by smearing.

   Synonym: streak

   This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in The Mayor of Casterbridge‎, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, page 108:

     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.

   • 1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet‎, London: Macmillan, Part 2, Chapter 8:

     Vast avalanches had left their dirty smears on the opposing slopes,

   • 1952, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in The Far Country‎, London: Heinemann:

     she bought a couple of rolls filled with a thin smear of potted meat for her breakfast

   • 2005, John Banville, The Sea‎, London: Picador, Part 2, p. 228:

     I could see the roofs of the town on the horizon, and farther off and higher up, a tiny silver ship propped motionless on a smear of pale sea.

2. (countable, uncountable) A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.

   Synonyms: calumny, slander, slur, mudslinging

   smear campaign

   • 1752, Theophilus Cibber, A Lick at a Liar‎, London: R. Griffiths, page 7:

     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 the sooty Smears of this Chimney-sweeper, by relating a simple Fact, which will, I flatter myself, amply confute the malicious Tales of this unprovoked, rancorous Mortal:

   • 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 13, in A Confederacy of Dunces, Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 289:

     “I’d rather not [read the newspaper article]. It’s probably full of falsification and smear. The yellow journalists doubtlessly suggested all sorts of lip-smacking innuendoes.”

3. (biology) 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.^[1]

   Synonym: squash

4. (medicine) A Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).

   Synonyms: cervical smear, Pap test

   I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon for a smear.

5. (radio, television, uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.
   • 1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section:

     In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.

   • 1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports:

     Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.

6. (climbing) A maneuver in which the shoe is placed onto the holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact
7. (music) A rough glissando in jazz music.

• marse, reams, Mears, maser, mears, Seram, Armes, mares, MASER, rames, Mares, Marse