Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To spread or daub (a surface, for example) with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.
- intransitive verb To apply by spreading or daubing.
- intransitive verb To cause to be blurry or spread in unwanted places.
- intransitive verb To stain or attempt to destroy the reputation of; vilify.
- intransitive verb Slang To defeat utterly.
- intransitive verb To spread easily in an undesired way.
- noun A mark made by smearing; a spot or blot.
- noun A substance to be spread on a surface.
- noun Biology A sample, as of blood or bacterial cells, spread on a slide for microscopic examination or on the surface of a culture medium.
- noun Vilification or slander.
- noun A vilifying or slanderous remark.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Fat; grease; ointment.
- noun A spot, blotch, or stain made by, or as if by, some unctuous substanee rubbed upon a surface.
- noun In sugar manufacturing, the technical term for fermentation.
- noun In pottery, a mixture of glazing materials in water, used for coating articles before they are placed in the saggars of the glazing-furnace.
- To overspread with ointment; anoint.
- To overspread thickly, irregularly, or in blotches with anything unctuous, viscous, or adhesive; besmear; daub.
- To overspread too thickly, especially to the violation of good taste; paint, or otherwise adorn with something applied to a surface, in a way that is overdone or tawdry.
- To soil; contaminate; pollute.
- Synonyms To bedaub, begrime.
- To tarnish, sully.
- noun The soft, semi-fluid mud of calcium sulphate left in the generators when whiting and sulphuric acid were used to produce carbon-dioxid gas in the manufacture of aërated waters.
- noun In bacteriology, a preparation of bacteria for microscopical examination made by smearing the organisms upon a slide or cover-glass. Also called
spread . Seeculture . - To give a gloss to (pottery or stoneware) without glazing, as by putting a volatile flux or glazing preparation in the kiln or in the saggar with the ware. See
smearglaze andsmearing .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To overspread with anything unctuous, viscous, or adhesive; to daub.
- transitive verb To soil in any way; to contaminate; to pollute; to stain morally.
- transitive verb To smudge, blur, or render indistinct (writing, pictures, etc.).
- transitive verb to vilify (a person); to damage (a person's reputation), especially falsely or by unfair innuendo, and with malicious intent.
- noun A fat, oily substance; oinment.
- noun Hence, a spot made by, or as by, an unctuous or adhesive substance; a blot or blotch; a daub; a stain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
- verb transitive To have a substance smeared on (a surface).
- verb transitive To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about an individual, their statements, or their actions.
- verb intransitive To become spread by smearing.
- noun A mark made by smearing.
- noun medicine A
Pap smear . - noun A false
attack .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cover (a surface) by smearing (a substance) over it
- verb make a smudge on; soil by smudging
- noun a blemish made by dirt
- verb charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
- verb stain by smearing or daubing with a dirty substance
- noun slanderous defamation
- noun an act that brings discredit to the person who does it
- noun a thin tissue or blood sample spread on a glass slide and stained for cytologic examination and diagnosis under a microscope
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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More like “The smear starts here, constantly recited without any evidence, and when I am refuted, I call the watchdogs ‘vile’ and ’smear machines’ to motivate my braindead viewers/listeners to do what I want them to do.”
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And the first one we've performed here is what we term smear negative.
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Putin said he decided to stay away because of what he called a smear campaign against FIFA voters that created doubts about the decision even before it was made.
World Cup Bid Down To The Wire: Global Leaders, Celebrities Make Their Final Pitch AP 2010
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Putin said he decided to stay away because of what he called a smear campaign against FIFA voters that created doubts about the decision even before it was made.
World Cup Bid Down To The Wire: Global Leaders, Celebrities Make Their Final Pitch AP 2010
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Putin said he decided to stay away because of what he called a smear campaign against FIFA voters that created doubts about the decision even before it was made.
World Cup Bid Down To The Wire: Global Leaders, Celebrities Make Their Final Pitch AP 2010
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Rush Limbaugh now selling what he calls a smear letter from the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for more than $2 million.
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Plus, Rush Limbaugh auctioning off what he calls a smear letter from the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid.
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This week Regan hit News Corp. with a $100 million lawsuit over what she calls a smear campaign and she makes one particularly explosive charge.
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They want an apology from the Roman Catholic leader for what they call a smear character assassination of the Prophet Mohammed and a smear campaign.
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She ran Michael Dukakis 'campaign, deploring this late-minute what she call smear and insisting "The L.A. Times" apologize.
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Since 2008, instead of applying leap seconds to our servers using clock steps, we have "smeared" the extra second across the hours before and after each leap. The leap smear applies to all Google services, including all our APIs.
GHibbs commented on the word smear
My adjectival use: 'They often use a smear campaign to discredit a politician.'
October 10, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word smear
"In sugar manufacturing, the technical term for fermentation."
--Cent. Dict.
October 2, 2012