smirch

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“
Yet the memory of it will always--smirch And if life isn't what we make it, where is our hope and where are our sunsets?

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To soil, stain, or dirty with or as if with a smearing agent: "their tough, hostile faces, smirched by the grime and rust” (Henry Roth).
  2. transitive verb To dishonor; defame.
  3. noun Something, such as a blot, smear, or stain, that smirches.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

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

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Examples (50)

  • "Dirty, smirch, sully, violate reputation, character assassination Defile?" —  Harpy Thyme
  • Yet the memory of it will always--smirch And if life isn't what we make it, where is our hope and where are our sunsets? —  Mistress Anne
  • He had never tried to embarrass him or smirch his name. —  The Snowshoe Trail
  • Don't let these fellows smirch your name and the name of the Service. —  The Enchanted Canyon
  • A power to smirch the names of decent people. —  The Clarion
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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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 smorchen.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also smurch, smerch; assibilated form of smerk (with formative -k as in smirk), from Middle English smeren, smurien, smear; see smear. Cf. besmirch.
  2. from smirch, v.
 

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/smərtʃ/
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