Definition of "smear"

smear

/smɪə(ɹ)/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  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
  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
2. (transitive) To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
  Quotations
  Why did you bring these daggers from the place?They must lie there: go carry them; and smearThe 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, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]
  […] a Vessel of huge bulk,Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth,Smeard round with Pitch,
  1667, John Milton, “]”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 725-727
  […] 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
3. (transitive) To make something dirty.
  Quotations
  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
  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
4. (transitive) (of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.
  Quotations
  a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin
  1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, page 263
  a rust spot smearing the back of the sink
  1982, 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 US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, page 323
5. (transitive) To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.
  Quotations
  May everlasting shame consumeThe memory of those who triedTo befoul and smear th’ exalted nameOf one who spurned them in his pride.
  1914 June, James Joyce, Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, page 164
  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.
  1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82
  They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.
  2018, Richard Powers, “Neelay Mehta”, in The Overstory‎, New York: Norton
6. (transitive) To cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.
  Quotations
  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, 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
  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
7. (intransitive) To become messy or not clear by being spread.
8. (transitive) To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.
  Quotations
  ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops
  1970, 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 frenzy
  1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise‎, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311
  […] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.
  2001, Richard Flanagan, “The Freshwater Crayfish”, in Gould’s Book of Fish‎, New York: Grove Press, published 2002
9. (transitive) To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.
  Quotations
  small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood
  1864, Richard F. Burton, chapter 3, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,‎, volume 1, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 43
  the fences and outhousesbuilt of barrel-stavesand parts of boxes, all,if I am fortunate,smeared a bluish green
  1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral”, in Al Que Quiere!‎, Boston: The Four Seas Company, page 15
  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
10. (transitive) To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.
  Quotations
  […] 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, 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
  […] 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?
  2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chapter 6, in Americanah‎, New York: Knopf, page 74
11. (transitive) To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.
  Quotations
  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; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], 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
  […] she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.
  1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323
12. (climbing) To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural smears
1. A mark made by smearing.
  Quotations
  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
  Vast avalanches had left their dirty smears on the opposing slopes,
  1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet‎, London: Macmillan, Part 2, Chapter 8
  she bought a couple of rolls filled with a thin smear of potted meat for her breakfast
  1952, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in The Far Country‎, London: Heinemann
  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.
  2005, John Banville, The Sea‎, London: Picador, Part 2, p. 228
2. (countable, uncountable) A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.
  Quotations
  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:
  1752, Theophilus Cibber, A Lick at a Liar‎, London: R. Griffiths, page 7
  “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.”
  a. 1969, John Kennedy Toole, chapter 13, in A Confederacy of Dunces, Penguin, published 1981, page 289
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.
4. (medicine) A Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).
5. (radio, television, uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.
  Quotations
  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
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.

Definition of "smear"

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