Verb
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.
1740, Colley Cibber, chapter I, in An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, […], London: […] John Watts for the author, →OCLC, page 3:Novv, Sir, vvhen my Time comes, leſt they ſhou'd think it vvorth vvhile to handle my Memory vvith the ſame Freedom, I am vvilling to prevent its being ſo odly beſmear'd (or at beſt but flatly vvhite-vvash'd) by taking upon me to give the Publick This, as true a Picture of myſelf as natural Vanity vvill permit me to dravv; […]
2012 January 26, Mike Allen Jim Vandehei, “Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich”, in Politico:His public record is already besmeared with tawdry divorces, […]