Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To soil, stain, or dirty with or as if with a smearing agent.
- transitive verb To dishonor; defame.
- noun Something, such as a blot, smear, or stain, that smirches.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To stain; smear; soil; smutch; besmirch.
- Figuratively, to degrade; reduce in honor, dignity, fame, repute, or the like: as, to
smirch one's own or another's reputation. - noun A soiling mark or smear; a darkening stain; a smutch.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To smear with something which stains, or makes dirty; to smutch; to begrime; to soil; to sully.
- noun A smutch; a dirty stain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
dirty ; to makedirty .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb smear so as to make dirty or stained
- noun a blemish made by dirt
- verb charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
- noun an act that brings discredit to the person who does it
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She had wandered away amid the complexities and smirch and withering heats of the great world, and she had returned, simple, and clean, and wholesome.
CHAPTER 2 2010
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Martin, she seemed to see the smirch left upon him by his surroundings.
Chapter 26 2010
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Every hand but his was black with soot, and his was guiltless of the smirch of Hooniah's pot.
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Lewis puts this very well, Eugenics have made certain that only demi-gods will now be born: psycho-analysis that none of them shall lose or smirch his divinity: economics that they shall have to hand all that demi-gods require.
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He was soldierly, flip, and intense about the defense of his honor, even when the smirch was well deserved or the fault his own.
CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010
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He was soldierly, flip, and intense about the defense of his honor, even when the smirch was well deserved or the fault his own.
CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010
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He was soldierly, flip, and intense about the defense of his honor, even when the smirch was well deserved or the fault his own.
CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010
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He came out of the Keating Five scandal (remember?) with nary a smirch while felony convictions were falling like rain.
McCain In New Hampshire Paper: Without More Troops, We Won't Win 2009
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I wouldn't be smirch anyone for living were they want to live thoufh - people just go down different paths is all.
Palin: The "Best Of America," The "Real America," Is In Small Towns 2009
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What a smirch on the record of Kansas University by Paula Sayles on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 3: 14: 59 PM
jennasaisquoi commented on the word smirch
As You Like It 1.3.105-106:
I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
The like do you, so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants.
December 17, 2008