smear

verb

1. (transitive)To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

   “The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.”

   “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.”

   “Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them.”

   “A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.”

   “Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.”

2. (transitive)To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.

   “She smeared her lips with lipstick.”

   “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.”

   “[…] a Vessel of huge bulk, Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth, Smeard round with Pitch,”

   “[…] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.”

3. (transitive)To make something dirty.

   “A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.”

   “[…] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,”

   “His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,”

4. (transitive)(of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.

   “a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin”

   “a rust spot smearing the back of the sink”

   “Wet leaves smeared the pavement.”

5. (derogatory, transitive)To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.

   “The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.”

   “May everlasting shame consume The memory of those who tried To befoul and smear th’ exalted name Of one who spurned them in his pride.”

   “1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82, 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.”

   “They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.”

6. (transitive)To cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.

   “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.”

   “Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.”

   “Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.”

7. (intransitive)To become messy or not clear by being spread.

   “The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.”

8. (transitive)To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.

   “ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops”

   “smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy”

   “[…] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.”

9. (transitive)To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.

   “small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood”

   “the fences and outhouses built of barrel-staves and parts of boxes, all, if I am fortunate, smeared a bluish green”

   “They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.”

10. (transitive)To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.

    “[…] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.”

    “With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,”

    “[…] 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?”

11. (transitive)To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.

    “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:”

    “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.”

    “1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323, […] she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.”

12. To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A mark made by smearing.

   “This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.”

   “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.”

   “Vast avalanches had left their dirty smears on the opposing slopes,”

   “she bought a couple of rolls filled with a thin smear of potted meat for her breakfast”

   “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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.

   “smear campaign”

   “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:”

   ““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.””

3. (countable, uncountable)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. (countable, uncountable)A Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).

   “I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon for a smear.”

5. (uncountable)Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.

   “In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.”

   “Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A maneuver in which the shoe is placed onto the holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact
7. (countable, uncountable)A rough glissando in jazz music.