besmear
Americanverb (used with object)
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to smear all over; bedaub.
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to sully; defile; soil.
to besmear someone's reputation.
verb
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to smear over; daub
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to sully; defile (often in the phrase besmear ( a person's ) reputation )
Other Word Forms
- besmearer noun
- unbesmeared adjective
Etymology
Origin of besmear
before 1050; Middle English bismeren, Old English besmerian. See be-, smear
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In all history it has been shown that he who seeks to besmear others usually leaves the greatest amount of mud on himself.
From My Attainment of the Pole by Cook, Frederick A.
To daub over; to besmear or soil with anything thick and dirty.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
And although we may besmear our liver and brain in the mire, how could we show our gratitude, even to so slight a degree as one ten-thousandth part.
From Hung Lou Meng, Book I Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by Joly, H. Bencraft
It is because I am old and a hermit that you are trying to besmear my advice and belittle me before my lord the king.
From The White Knight: Tirant Lo Blanc by Rudder, Robert S.
They fashion his image of kadamb7 wood and besmear it with red lead.
From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II by Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
