smear

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Q: You've said that turning the word "liberal" into a smear was a big error.

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Definitions (35)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. transitive verb To spread or daub with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.
  2. transitive verb To apply by spreading or daubing: smeared suntan lotion on my face and arms.
  3. transitive verb To stain by or as if by spreading or daubing with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (8)

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Examples (41)

  • They'd rather deal in innuendo - smear, attack, lie, cheat - anything! —  Arkansas News
  • The ACLU has been accused of trying to do away with the rights of Christians to say 'Merry Christmas' because it's supposedly politically incorrect, and this smear has been applied more generally to secular humanists and atheists who won't shut-up and don't know their place (in a Christian nation.) —  Thinkers' Podium
  • Q: You've said that turning the word "liberal" into a smear was a big error. —  IdahoStatesman.com News Updates
  • Every kind of smear has been aimed at her, from being nothing more than a pregnant pants-suit to a slut to a bad mother, and so on. —  Crush Liberalism
  • First you throw out a massive hack political smear, then a pathetic non-apology. —  Hot Air » Top Picks
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This word has been looked up 145 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

splotch ·  smudge ·  blob ·  speck ·  streak ·  stain ·  puddle ·  blur ·  blot ·  swirl ·  sheen ·  trickle

Used in the same contextWord Family

smear:   smeared
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English smeren, to anoint, from Old English smerian.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English smere, smer, from Anglo-Saxon smeru, smeoru, fat, grease, = Old Saxon smer = OFries. smere = Middle Dutch smere, Dutch smeer = Middle Low German smer, smēr = Old High German smero, Middle High German smer, German schmeer, schmiere = Icelandic smjör, smör, fat, grease, = Swedish Danish smör, butter; cf. Goth, smairthr, fatness, smarna, dung: Old Irish smir, marrow; Lithuanian smarsas, fat, smala, tar; Greek μύρον, unguent, σμιύρις, emery for polishing. Cf. smear, v., and cf. also smalt, smelt. The noun is in part (def. 2) from the verb.
  2. from Middle English smeren, smerien, smirien, smurien, from Anglo-Saxon smerian, smyrian = Middle Dutch, Dutch smeren = Middle Low German smeren, Low German smeren, smiren, smeiren, smeuren, grease, = Old High German smirwen, Middle High German smirn, smirwen, German schmicren, anoint, smear, = Icelandic smyrja = Swedish smörja = Danish smöre, anoint, smear; from the noun. Hence smirch.
 

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/smir/
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