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 reverse of besmear is to rub off; hence to obliterate means to rub out, to erase.

From Orthography As Outlined in the State Course of Study for Illinois by Cavins, Elmer W.

At funerals, "the women besmear themselves with the most disgusting filth."

From Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Finck, Henry Theophilus

“They are gentlemen, no matter how much you may wish to besmear them with low epithets.”

From The Squatter and the Don by Loyal, C.

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

Smirch, smirch, v.t. to besmear, dirty: to degrade in fame, dignity, &c.—n. a stain.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various