besmear
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English *bismerwen, from Old English besmirwan, besmierwan (“to besmear”), equivalent to be- + smear. Cognate with Dutch besmeren (“to besmear”), German beschmieren (“to besmear”).
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Verb edit
besmear (third-person singular simple present besmears, present participle besmearing, simple past and past participle besmeared)
- (transitive) To smear over, to smear all over, to daub.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:
- I long to ſee thee backe returne from thence,
That I may view theſe milk-white ſteeds of mine.
All loden with the heads of killed men,
And from their knees, euen to their hoofes below,
Beſmer’d with blood, that makes a dainty ſhow.
- 1734, William Stukeley, Of the Gout, page 57:
- […] carters and coachmen, who make in imitation thereof a composition of grease and tar, with which they besmear the inside of the naves of wheels and the extremitys of the axis upon which they move.
- (transitive) To damage the reputation of, to tarnish, to sully.
- 2012 January 26, Mike Allen Jim Vandehei, “Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich”, in Politico[1]:
- His public record is already besmeared with tawdry divorces, […]
Translations edit
to smear over, sully
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