besmear

American  

[bih-smeer] / bɪˈsmɪər /

verb (used with object)

1. to smear all over; bedaub.

2. to sully; defile; soil.

   to besmear someone's reputation.

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besmear British  

/ bɪˈsmɪə /

verb

1. to smear over; daub

2. to sully; defile (often in the phrase besmear ( a person's ) reputation )

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Other Word Forms

• besmearer noun
• unbesmeared adjective

Etymology

Origin of besmear

before 1050; Middle English bismeren, Old English besmerian. See be-, smear

Example Sentences

The colours with which they besmear the bodies of both sexes possibly date from the same common origin.

From A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Tench, Watkin

Was it honour and fair play to besmear my mother's name, to throw reflections upon my birth?

From The Day of Judgment by Hocking, Joseph

The women besmear themselves with the most disgusting filth.

From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia by Frazer, James George, Sir

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

He sat behind his card-strewn counter holding the stencil brush like a sort of weapon ready to besmear that face of sneering assurance if its owner ventured too near.

From Pee-Wee Harris by Fitzhugh, Percy Keese