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Smear   /smɪr/   Listen
Smear

noun
1.
Slanderous defamation.  Synonyms: malignment, vilification.
2.
A thin tissue or blood sample spread on a glass slide and stained for cytologic examination and diagnosis under a microscope.  Synonyms: cytologic smear, cytosmear.
3.
A blemish made by dirt.  Synonyms: blot, daub, slur, smirch, smudge, spot.
4.
An act that brings discredit to the person who does it.  Synonyms: blot, smirch, spot, stain.



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"Smear" Quotes from Famous Books



... about it is that this particular shoe ought to be sent to the cobbler's. There's a small hole in the middle of the sole," I said, "and it should also have this smear of red clay wiped off," I added, as I pointed to the stain along the outer side ...
— The Adventures of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons • James Francis Thierry

... powder fouling, has been removed and that the bore may be safely oiled. Normally, after firing a barrel in good condition the metal fouling is so slight as to be hardly perceptible. It is merely a smear of infinitesimal thickness, easily removed by solvents of cupro-nickel. However, due to pitting, the presence of dust, other abrasives, or to accumulation, metal fouling may occur in clearly visible flakes or patches ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department

... dean craze creed tribe drone bean shape steep brine stone bead state sleek spire probe beam crape fleet bride shore lean fume smite blame clear mope spume spite flame drear mold fluke quite slate blear tore flume whine spade spear robe dure spine prate smear poke ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... skins; smear them well with tar, and lay them on my back. Do not fear; you will succeed in this also; but, in the end, the emperor's ...
— The Violet Fairy Book • Various

... the soldier's trench, I walk 'mid shambles' smear and stench, The dead I mourn; I bear the stretcher and I bend O'er Fritz and Pierre and Jack to mend What ...
— A Treasury of War Poetry - British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917 • Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by George Herbert Clarke

... soaked in. You will see that the "sooner" is the "better" in this case. Try not to increase the size of the spot, for you must keep the ink from spreading. Then dip fresh cotton in milk, and carefully sop the spot. Do not use the cotton when it is inky; that will smear the carpet and spread the stain. Use fresh bits of cotton, dipped in clean milk, until the stain has disappeared. Then rinse with clean water in the same way, and dry ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... the next morning, and the vessel grew day by day till at length a skeleton ship rose to view. Weeks passed on and the ship made rapid progress till the whole hulk stood ready. Then a great cauldron was heated, and the bubbling tar within was used to smear over the planks and thus sheathe ...
— The Children's Longfellow - Told in Prose • Doris Hayman

... Hence the fat Yeri beauties no longer shelter their skins from the burning rays of the sun, and are become as brown as the rest. All the graces have departed from them; their fascinating smiles have vanished; and the rancid cocoa-oil with which they smear themselves may be smelt at many paces distance. In short, either the picture drawn of them by the early travellers was a monstrous flattery, or they are altogether different from what they were. I saw but one handsome girl at Tahaiti; she was the sister of the little King, only fourteen years old, ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue

... have a smear of marmalade on your biscuit for supper to-night, if I don't forget it," Katherine said, when the boathouse was reached without any danger to ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant

... Cocceianus writes. And if it seems to you an irksome thing to delve into books of ancient writers, at all events I will explain cursorily, as best I may, the entertainments pertaining to the triumph. They cause the celebrator of the triumph to ascend a car, smear his face with earth of Sinope or cinnabar (representing blood) to screen his blushes, fasten armlets on his arms, and put a laurel wreath and a branch of laurel in his right hand. Upon his head they also place a crown of some kind of wood having inscribed upon it his exploits or his ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio

... V. be unclean, become unclean &c. Adj.; rot, putrefy, ferment, fester, rankle, reek; stink &c. 401; mold, molder; go bad &c. adj. render unclean &c. adj.; dirt, dirty; daub, blot, blur, smudge, smutch[obs3], soil, smoke, tarnish, slaver, spot, smear; smirch; begrease[obs3];.dabble, drabble[obs3], draggle, daggle[obs3]; spatter, slubber; besmear &c., bemire, beslime[obs3], begrime, befoul; splash, stain, distain[obs3], maculate, sully, pollute, defile, debase, contaminate, taint, leaven;, corrupt &c. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand.— Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them; and smear The ...
— Sleep Walking and Moon Walking - A Medico-Literary Study • Isidor Isaak Sadger

... Mr. Meadows' voice increased a little. 'Nor is that all,' he said. 'The smear on the floor, and the stains in which the naked foot tracked, are not human blood. They're not any sort of blood. It was clearly evident when you had your lens over them. They show no coagulated fiber. They show only the evidences of dye—weak dye—watered ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post

... is a very gay personage who knows how to make the most of his money and time. But that report came from his wife, so I took it with a grain of salt. I know from my own experience just how the sinner tries to smear the saint with his own crimes although I do not mean by that that I ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... questions, when she falls in love she is fool enough to believe her adored one a veritable Solomon. Cuddling? Well, she may preside over conventions, brandish her umbrella at board meetings, tramp the streets soliciting subscriptions, wield the blue pencil in an editorial sanctum, hammer a type-writer, smear her nose with ink from a galley full of pied type, lead infant ideas through the tortuous mazes of c-a-t and r-a-t, plead at the bar, or wield the scalpel in a dissecting room, yet when the right moment comes, she will sink as gracefully into his ...
— Violets and Other Tales • Alice Ruth Moore

... and water, Over the sea perhaps!—I have heard tell That 'tis some thousand miles, almost at the end Of the world, where witches go to meet the Devil. They used to ride on broomsticks, and to smear Some ointment over them and then away Out of the window! but 'tis worse than all To worry the poor beasts so. Shame upon it That in a Christian country they should ...
— Poems, 1799 • Robert Southey

... intended to be attached, and carefully centre it; then with a pencil make a slight dot at each of the angles. Remove the proof, and lay it face downwards upon a piece of clean paper or a cloth, and with any convenient brush smear it evenly over with a paste made of arrowroot, taking care not to have more than just enough to cover it without leaving any patches. Place it gently on the cardboard, holding it for the purpose by two opposite angles, and with a silk handkerchief dab it gently, beginning in the middle, and ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 232, April 8, 1854 • Various

... something concerning the contents of that mysterious grip-sack of Archie's. So judge of our surprise when this wonderful London cousin of ours first produced a large jar of what he called mosquito cream, and proceeded to smear his face and hands with ...
— Our Home in the Silver West - A Story of Struggle and Adventure • Gordon Stables

... the bed with the rubbers in my mouth is difficult, but it doesn't make any difference if some of the mud comes off on the side of the bedspread. In fact, it all helps in the final effect. I usually try to smear them around when I get them at last on the spread, and if I can leave one of them on the pillow, I feel that it's a pretty fine little old world, after all. This ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley

... bow, O Hiawatha, Take your arrows, jasper-headed, Take your war-club, Puggawaugun, And your mittens, Minjekahwun, And your birch-canoe for sailing, And the oil of Mishe-Nahma, So to smear its sides, that swiftly You may pass the black pitch-water; Slay this merciless magician, Save the people from the fever That he breathes across the fen-lands, And ...
— The Song Of Hiawatha • Henry W. Longfellow

... tree will bring flies if you smear the leaves with sweet stuff," said Diavolo. "You remember that copper-beech outside papa's dressing ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand

... destined never to be revealed, for Cyril and Robert suddenly burst into the room, and on each brow were the traces of deep emotion. On Cyril's pale brow stood beads of agitation and perspiration, and on the scarlet brow of Robert was a large black smear. ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit

... wide about, When wrought are sacred mysteries! Now aid me: in my foe's house bid Your wrath and power divine to hie, Whilst in their awful forests hid, O'ercome with sleep, the wild beasts lie: May suburb curs, that all may jeer, Bay the old lecher, smear'd with nard {94}, More choice than which these fingers ne'er Have, skilful, at my need prepar'd. But why have charms by me employ'd, Less luck than her's, Medea dread, With which her rival she destroy'd, Great Creon's child, then proudly fled, When the robe ...
— Targum • George Borrow

... worms can be familiar with. A hundred and ten years have passed, since any play was acted here. The sky shines in through the gashes in the roof; the boxes are dropping down, wasting away, and only tenanted by rats; damp and mildew smear the faded colours, and make spectral maps upon the panels; lean rags are dangling down where there were gay festoons on the Proscenium; the stage has rotted so, that a narrow wooden gallery is thrown across it, or it would sink beneath the tread, and bury the visitor in the gloomy depth ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens

... had figured so conspicuously in all the rumors, it appeared that suspicion had monstrously exaggerated the facts. Instead of a waistcoat plashed with blood—as popular imagination pictured it—it was a gray waistcoat, with one spot and a slight smear of blood, which admitted of a very simple explanation. Three days before, Franz had cut his left hand in cutting some bread; and to this the maid testified, because she was present when the accident occurred. He had not noticed that his waistcoat was marked by it until the ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.

... of the desert lies on your hair and your feet are scratched with thorns and your body is scorched by the sun. Come with me, Honorius, and I will clothe you in a tunic of silk. I will smear your body with myrrh and pour spikenard on your hair. I will clothe you in hyacinth and put honey ...
— A Florentine Tragedy—A Fragment • Oscar Wilde

... Of Pan and the Nymphs deg.? deg.81 That he sits, bending downward His white, delicate neck To the ivy-wreathed marge Of thy cup; the bright, glancing vine-leaves 85 That crown his hair, Falling forward, mingling With the dark ivy-plants— His fawn-skin, half untied, Smear'd with red wine-stains? Who is he, 90 That he sits, overweigh'd By fumes of wine and sleep, So late, in thy portico? What youth, Goddess,—what guest ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold

... single word, and that I taught him, and it's MULTIPLICATION—which you may see him execute upside down, because he can't do it the natural way. The one seen by self and Henrietta by the Green Park railings can just smear into existence the two ends of a rainbow, with his cuff and a rubber—if very hard put upon making a show—but he could no more come the arch of the rainbow, to save his life, than he could come the moonlight, fish, volcano, shipwreck, mutton, hermit, or any ...
— Somebody's Luggage • Charles Dickens

... fingers on his dingy Jean pants, and gripped the offered hand, appearing homelier than ever because of a smear ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish

... smear was on Baby Akbar's forehead, and despite the smudge, he looked a very fine little fellow indeed. So much so that quite a murmur of delighted admiration ran round the assemblage when Askurry appeared, leading him by the hand; for he had quickly learned to run about ...
— The Adventures of Akbar • Flora Annie Steel

... he sat there in the dark, the moon through the skylight above laying a pale smear which lengthened slowly towards him down the stairway. ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... be placed on the dish in order that they may be distributed in the course of serving.—If fish is to be fried or broiled, it must be dried in a nice soft cloth, after it is well cleaned and washed. If for frying, smear it over with egg, and sprinkle on it some fine crumbs of bread. If done a second time with the egg and bread, the fish will look so much the better. Put on the fire a stout fryingpan, with a large quantity of lard or dripping boiling hot, plunge the fish into it, and let it fry tolerably ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... appeared to have on red caps. It is curious that the taste for red hair should be so general among the Africans here and further north; in the south black mica, called Sebilo, and even soot are used to deepen the colour of the hair; here many smear the head with red-ochre, others plait the inner bark of a tree stained red into it; and a red powder called Mukuru is employed, which some say is obtained from the ground, and others from the roots ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... a goblin come, smear his forehead with this salve, put it on his eyes, cense him with incense, and sign him frequently with the sign of ...
— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten

... would be intolerable to civilized noses. They are the filthiest people in the whole world. Words cannot convey an idea of their disgusting nature. They have long hair matted together with red clay and palm oil. This composition has a most outrageous smell, and with it they smear their faces and bodies. They are, generally speaking, a stout, athletic, well made race of people, and particularly harmless in their dispositions, though from their appearance you would not imagine that to be the case, as each individual is always ...
— The World of Waters - A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea • Mrs. David Osborne

... paler beneath and with an ashy tinge; ears with a narrow margin of white (Jerdon.) A reddish smear on neck and shoulders of most specimens; membranes dusky ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... his daze at the sight of the other. Strength seemed to flow back into his weary body. His fist came up, clean with all the power that was left in him. It went home with a soul-satisfying crunch. Urga's gray gash of a mouth seemed to smear slowly over the rest of his face. A wild animal scream burst from him as he sagged. Then a swirl of other Mercutians anxious to get at the Earthman eddied him out ...
— Slaves of Mercury • Nat Schachner

... mercy would be realized in society, as well as in the character of the individual. These different expectations regarding the future are broadly designated as messianic prophecies. The word "messianic," like its counterpart "Messiah" (Greek, "Christ"), comes from the Hebrew word meaning to smear or to anoint. It designated in ancient times the weapons consecrated for battle or the king chosen and thus symbolically set aside to lead the people as Jehovah's representative, or a priest called to represent the people in the ceremonial ...
— The Makers and Teachers of Judaism • Charles Foster Kent

... upon its prey. The Patagonians are a barbarous people in the main and, like all barbarous people, are vengeful, cunning, and subtle. A favourite revenge of theirs upon unsuspecting enemies is to get within touch of them and secretly to smear a mixture of coriander and oil of sassafras upon some part of their bodies, and then either to lure or drive them into the forest. By a peculiar arrangement of Mother Nature this mixture has a fascination, a maddening effect ...
— Cleek, the Master Detective • Thomas W. Hanshew

... lent about as a dear simple sweet effusion of the talented young countess, who longed for rural retirement. And down came a great tear into the red trimming of British North America, and Kate unadvisedly trying to wipe it up with her handkerchief, made a red smear all across to Cape Verd! Formerly she would have exclaimed at once; now she only held up the other side of the book that her aunt might not see, and felt very shabby all the time. But Lady Barbara was reading over a letter, and did not look. If Kate had not been wrapt up in herself, she would ...
— Countess Kate • Charlotte M. Yonge

... from a reverie. He put up his hand and wiped something from his cheek, and held the hand out to a shaft of light which came from the open door behind them. A smear of blood lay across his ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

... rigging, the captain of the Vrow Katerina arrived, and stepping on board of her by the plank which communicated with the quay, the first thing that he did was to run to the mainmast and embrace it with both arms, although there was no small portion of tallow on it to smear the cloth of his coat. "Oh! my dear Vrow, my Katerina!" cried he, as if he were speaking to a female. "How do you do? I'm glad to see you again—you have been quite well, I hope? You do not like being laid up in this way. Never mind, my dear creature! ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat

... that ancient tradition of loyalty that Bletherley had called the monopolist institution of marriage. "The pure and simple old theory—love and faithfulness," said Parkson, "suffices for me. If we are to smear our political movements with this sort of ...
— Love and Mr. Lewisham • H. G. Wells

... ladies—smiles, if you please! Nothing has happened here, absolutely nothing! We begin again with an absolutely clean slate, without a smear upon it! ...
— Three Comedies • Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

... themselves in their new costume, M. du Tillet accompanying them to assist in their toilet. Both boys had the greatest repugnance to the change, and objected still further when M. du Tillet insisted it was absolutely necessary that they should cut their hair and smear their ...
— In the Reign of Terror - The Adventures of a Westminster Boy • G. A. Henty

... resisted, he was to be bound, but on no account must his blood be made to flow, for if this happened it would bring a curse upon the land, and he, Dingaan, swore by the head of the Black One who was gone (that is Chaka) that he would kill him, Ibubesi, in payment. Yes, he would smear him with honey and bind him over an ant-heap in the sun till he died, if he hunted Africa from end to end to catch him. Moreover, should he fail in the business, he would send a regiment and destroy his town at Mafooti, and, put his wives ...
— The Ghost Kings • H. Rider Haggard

... too, that Leipzig ought to have been too precious in his eyes, for him to smear his drivel and snivel on so honorable and famous a city; but in his own imagination he is no ordinary man. I perceive that if I permit the petulance of all these thick-heads, even the bath-maids will finally write ...
— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther

... sung a song which was said to be composed by a small country laird's son, on one of his father's maids, with whom he was in love; and I saw no reason why I might not rhyme as well as he; for excepting that he could smear sheep, and cast peats, his father living in the moorlands, he had no ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... crisp hair which shaded her seat of pleasure; on the other I could, by putting my head on the bed, just see the dark hair creeping between her bum-cheeks, her flesh had the slightly brown tint common to French women; on the bed lay rounds of spunk mixed with blood, a smear of it was on her thigh on the bum-side. My prick rose again to stiffness at the sight, I wanted to piss violently, but could scarcely accomplish it. I looked at my shirt tail. Spunk and blood were thick on it, I found under the bed her chemise; on it profusely were the bloody seminal marks ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous

... by its bird sub-totems of the coming of Marahgoo, and after such a warning tribes take care, if wise, to stay in camp; or should a man go out, he will smear his face with black, and put rings of black round his wrists and ankles, and probably have a little charm ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... the hospital put me on very low diet and gave me an ointment to "smear" myself with, as he called it; and I was ordered to remain in my berth. By means of one of the coolies of the hospital, I got a pair of spectacles from the town, and such a pair, as to size and form, that people in America regard what is ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper

... woman, with her infant hanging in a cloth on her back, was grinding corn between two stones. She went on with her work, and presently addressed my wife, asking (as was explained to us) for a piece of soap wherewith to smear her face, presumably as a more fragrant substitute for the clay or ochre with which the Basuto ladies cover their bodies. The hut was clean and sweet, and, indeed, all through Basutoland we were struck by the neat finish of the dwellings and of the reed fences which inclosed ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... the old man. 'This evening you must take your child, and open her veins, and smear the wounds of your friend with her blood. And you will see, he will ...
— The Crimson Fairy Book • Various

... Eh!" she suddenly made a gesture of despair. 'Let's better drink some cognac, Jennechka,'" she addressed herself, "'and let's suck the lemon a little! ...' Brr ... what nasty stuff! ... And where does Annushka always get such abominable stuff? If you smear a dog's wool with it, it will fall off ... And always, the low-down thing, she'll take an extra half. Once I somehow ask her—'What are you hoarding money for?' 'Well, I,' she says, 'am saving it up for a wedding. What sort,' she says, 'of joy will it be for my husband, ...
— Yama (The Pit) • Alexandra Kuprin

... battle, to protect themselves against ultra-violet radiation, they smear themselves with red paint—presumably ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... of otter skin or dressed buffalo entrails. This tail is frequently increased in thickness and length by adding false hair, but others allow it to flow loose naturally. Combs are seldom used by the men, and they never smear the hair with grease, but red earth is sometimes put upon it. White earth daubed over the hair generally denotes mourning. The young men sometimes have a bunch of hair on the crown, about the size of a small teacup, ...
— Pioneers in Canada • Sir Harry Johnston

... paste of fresh lime and water, and with a fine brush smear it as thickly as possible over all the polished surface requiring preservation. By this simple means, all the grates and fire-irons in an empty house may be kept for months free from harm, without further ...
— Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife • Marion Mills Miller

... was dead. They led us into the shell of the place, the stone walls being still staunchly erect; but the roof was gone, and in the cinders and dust on the planks of an inner room they showed us a big dull-brown smear. ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... Timea, you need not regret this coiffure. It would suit you much better if you wore your hair quite plain; you have such lovely hair, that it is a sin to burn it with irons and smear it with pomade. Do not allow it; it is a shame to lose any of your magnificent hair, and it is soon ruined by the ill-treatment which ladies call hairdressing—it loses its brilliancy, splits at the points, breaks easily, and falls early. You do not require all that artificial structure. ...
— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai

... elate, Form'd the gay tea-pot, and the pictured plate; Saw with illumin'd brow and dazzled eyes In the red stove vitrescent colours rise; 285 Speck'd her tall beakers with enamel'd stars, Her monster-josses, and gigantic jars; Smear'd her huge dragons with metallic hues, With golden purples, and cobaltic blues; Bade on wide hills her porcelain castles glare, 290 And glazed Pagodas tremble ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

... drorin'-room an' 'e ses, "Oh, you're in 'ere are yer, Easton," 'e ses—just like that, quite affable like. So I ses, "Yes, sir." "Well," 'e ses, "get it slobbered over as quick as you can," 'e ses, "'cos we ain't got much for this job: don't spend a lot of time puttying up. Just smear it over ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell

... a while of fussing around, you get started. You smear your face with something approaching lather if you've got hot water, with a sticky, milky substance that resembles, more than anything else, a coating of lumpy office paste. This done, and rubbed in a bit around the ...
— The Stars & Stripes, Vol 1, No 1, February 8, 1918, - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 • American Expeditionary Forces

... a letter to the Editor, Who thanked me duly by return of post— I'm for a handsome article his creditor; Yet, if my gentle Muse he please to roast, And break a promise after having made it her, Denying the receipt of what it cost, And smear his page with gall instead of honey, All I can say ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... madmen. Some of the lower class of purchasers, inspired by the thrifty desire for gain said to be a New England characteristic, sell these tickets, which they buy at the box-office price, at an enormous advance, and smear their clothes with treacle and sugar and other abominations, to secure, from the fear of their contact of all decently-clad competitors, freer access to the box-keeper. To prevent, if possible, these malpractices, and secure, to ourselves and the managers of the theater ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... on you and being easy!" laughed Mortimer. "This thing has to be done good and proper. Come on, let's go out. We'll smear this old town with a ...
— Andy at Yale - The Great Quadrangle Mystery • Roy Eliot Stokes

... hearth is growing cauld, And will be caulder still, And sair, sair in the fauld Will be the winter's chill; For peats were yet to ca', Our sheep they were to smear, When my a' passed awa' In the fa' ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... 1. Smear a layer of sterile vaseline on the upper surface of the ring cell of a hanging-drop slide by means of the glass rod provided with the vaseline bottle, and place the slide on a ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... have reduced almost any life-form which moved into its field to a rather thin smear, but there wasn't even that left of the yellow demon-shape. Something, presumably something it was carrying, had turned it into a small blaze of incandescent energy as the mine flattened it out. Which explained the sound like a cloudburst. That had been the passage's automatic ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... a substance of which I had never heard before, and of which I have forgotten the name, had been landed somewhere or other in Scandinavia. "But do you know what it is, sir? It's the most appalling poison! It's the concoction that the South Sea Islanders smear their bows and arrows with—cyanide and prussic acid are soothing-syrup compared to it. Of course it's for those filthy Boches. Five hundred and eighty tons of it! There won't be a bullet or a zeppelin or a shell or a bayonet ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell

... cool, and wore a sort of flowered blouse, the presence of which was explained by the easel before which she sat, and the palette through which her thumb protruded. She had laid down her brush, and the young man was using her mahlstick in a badly-directed effort to smear into a design some splotches of paint on the unused ...
— Aladdin & Co. - A Romance of Yankee Magic • Herbert Quick

... leader of the Apaches was horrible to look at. He was naked save for a breechcloth and boot moccasins and his face was daubed with ocher and vermilion. Across his lean chest, too, was a smear of paint just under the necklace of bear claws that gave him his name. He was armed with a .50-caliber Sharps single-shot rifle and with the only revolver in the tribe—an old-fashioned cap-and-ball six-shooter, taken from some ...
— Kid Wolf of Texas - A Western Story • Ward M. Stevens

... of the press agent. It's a kind of a religion with 'em. I was goin' to build a house on mine that was goin' to be a cross between a California bungalow and the Horticultural Building at the World's Fair. Say, I ain't the worst, kid. There's others outside of my smear, understand, that I wouldn't ...
— Roast Beef, Medium • Edna Ferber

... wash their faces once a year.... They seem never to have changed their clothing until it is beginning to fall off their indolent frames.... They are so lazy that their hair falls off their heads.... And I have not yet seen a coat that does not carry the smear of their dirty hair.... That characterizes the MEN.... The WOMEN are altogether different.... They are perfect water rats and like to bathe many times a day.... Their gowns are red, worn like a shirt-waist over well-rounded ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe

... straining, the big bully lay in the mud, overpowered now by the instant dash of the guard, while their bantam officer, rising and disgustedly contemplating the smear of wet soil over his new overcoat, was presently aware of Stuyvesant, bending forward, extending a helping hand, ...
— Ray's Daughter - A Story of Manila • Charles King

... parts closely together, bind them with cotton yarn (see Fig. 65) that has been coated with grafting wax. This wax is made of equal parts of tallow, beeswax, and linseed oil. Smear the wax thoroughly over the whole joint, and make sure that ...
— Agriculture for Beginners - Revised Edition • Charles William Burkett

... below had started to sing 'D'ye ken John Peel?' and were yelling out a lot of silly hunting-cries with the chorus. I could hear nothing above the racket. But, sure enough, looking to port over my shoulder as I laid hand on the wheel to check it, I saw a whitish smear that meant breakers; and the smear no sooner showed than above it a great black cliff stood out as if 'twere a moving thing and meant to carve into us right amidships—a great cliff with a rock on it like the Duke ...
— Major Vigoureux • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... The blacks smear themselves over with the fat of fish or of almost any game they catch. It is supposed to keep their limbs supple, and give the admired ebony gloss to their skins which, by the way, are very fine grained. After a flood, when the water is running out of the ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... last beginning to work its too oft repeated and now nearly exhausted influence on the sagging and much frayed nerves of the old man. A yellowish remnant of withered rose began to smear his far-off west: he dared not look to the east; that lay terribly cold and gray; and he smiled with a little curl of his lip now and then, as he thought of this and that advantage he had had in the game of life, ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... Frank, "the Indians smear their faces and hands with some kind of sticky stuff that keeps the mosquitoes from reaching their flesh. In that way they ...
— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish

... secreted in two glandular sacs near the root of the tail, is "castoreum," more generally known as "bark stone" among the trappers. The odor is powerful and is so attractive to the animals themselves, that the trapper has only to smear some of it near the trap which is hidden under water. Any beaver which catches the scent, is sure to hasten to the spot and is almost certain to be caught ...
— The Life of Kit Carson • Edward S. Ellis

... at last, spent and dusty. There was looking at him only the little red-eyed maid whom he had tried to comfort at some far-off hour in his life. Her face was all contorted with weeping, and she had a great smear of dust ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... Before morning the senses of Anne must return to her. So gentle a bosom could be surely reasoned out of resentment, or daunted, at least, from betraying to her stern father a secret that, if told, would smear the sward of England with the gore of thousands. What woman will provoke war and bloodshed? And for an evil not wrought, for a purpose not fulfilled? The king was grateful that his victim had escaped him. He would see Anne before the earl could, and appease her anger, obtain her silence! For ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... and saw crawling toward him a German soldier, hatless and coatless, whose white face seemed all the more pale and ghastly for the smear of blood upon it. He was quite without arms, in proof of which he raised his open hands and slapped his sides and hips. As he did so a long piece of heavy chain, which was manacled to his wrist ...
— Tom Slade Motorcycle Dispatch Bearer • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... I, "is to trap several dozen crows, smear their feet with glue, tie a ball of Indian twine to the ankle of every bird, then liberate them. Some are certain to fly into the crater and try to scrape the glue off in the sand. Then," I added, triumphantly, "all we have to do is to ...
— Police!!! • Robert W. Chambers

... the ship a lively five minutes when the watch was relieved. Slowly the Andromeda swung to the west. Even more slowly, or so it appeared to the anxious man on the bridge, a red eye peeped into being alongside the green one. A blacker smear showed up on the black sea, and a hoarse voice, presumably situated beneath the smear, expressed ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

... life. After that it was a battle royal between them, Cupples using every bit of brain and sinew he possessed to outwit his opponent and Clint watching him as a cat watches a mouse and constantly out-guessing him and "getting the jump" time after time. Cupples had a bleeding lip and a smear of brown earth down one cheek and was a forbidding looking antagonist, and for hours after practice was over Clint had only to close his eyes to visualise the angry, intense countenance of his opponent. ...
— Left Tackle Thayer • Ralph Henry Barbour

... Greek, had to translate every document he found that did not contain verses. While he listened, he clawed and strummed on the young man's lyre and poured out the scented oil which Orion had been wont to use to smear it over his beard. In front of the bright silver mirror he could not cease ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... and recovered for a two-yard loss and, with eight to go on fourth down, decided that a goal from field was the best try. And, although Brimfield tried hard to get through to the nimble-footed Cox, and did smear the Blue's line pretty fairly, the ball went well and true across the bar, and the 0 on the score-board was changed ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour

... prize may Nisus from your bounty claim, Who merited the first rewards and fame? In falling, both an equal fortune tried; Would fortune for my fall so well provide!" With this he pointed to his face, and show'd His hand and all his habit smear'd with blood. Th' indulgent father of the people smil'd, And caus'd to be produc'd an ample shield, Of wondrous art, by Didymaon wrought, Long since from Neptune's bars in triumph brought. This giv'n to Nisus, he divides the rest, And equal ...
— The Aeneid • Virgil

... position that lent to his person the additional horror of deformity. And the burden, lying upon a sweeping cedar branch which he held and dragged by a long stem, was the body of a white man. The scalp had been neatly lifted, and blood lay in a broad smear upon the cheeks ...
— The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories • Algernon Blackwood

... as wretched a substitute for the expression of sentiment, as the smear of paint for the blushes of health: it is not only equally transient, and equally liable to detection; but, as paint leaves the countenance yet more withered and ghastly, the passions burst out with more violence after ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... woman held a lantern, and Black Bear dipped his fingers in a jar of cold-cream and began to smear his whole face and neck. He looked all white and lathery in a moment, and he grinned in a funny way up at Cowboy ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's • Laura Lee Hope

... conversing with some invisible being. Evening arrived, and the waggons carried off their ripe and luscious loads, leaving the young men and girls racing up and down the pathways, and amongst the vines, endeavouring to smear each other's faces with ...
— Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches • Henri de Crignelle

... taken up with myself, in the low greedy sense, as you think. I'm not such a base creature. I'm capable of gratitude, I'm capable of affection. One may live in paint and tinsel, but one isn't absolutely without a soul. Yes, I've got one," the girl went on, "though I do smear my face and grin at myself in the glass and practise my intonations. If what you're going to do is good for you I'm very glad. If it leads to good things, to honour and fortune and greatness, I'm enchanted. If it means your being away always, for ever and ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... the officer had to do his duty. The others scuttled away, but Jimmy was so absorbed in the game that he didn't see the "cop" until he was right on him, so he was "pinched." He blubbered a little and wiped his grimy face with his grimier sleeve until it was one long, brown smear. You know this was ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... usually is the supervisor. He lives by it. He wants to smooth over the defects, he wants to lay the dust that every passerby kicks up, he tries to smear over the truth regarding conditions with messy and ill-smelling oil. Above everything, he doesn't want the road dug up and rebuilt—says it will interfere with traffic, injure business, and even set people to talking about changing the route entirely! ...
— The Friendly Road - New Adventures in Contentment • (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

... puree of spinach; take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves while hot, after removing the shells, and press each half a little way into the puree, so that the yellow yolk will be shown surrounded by the white ring. Be very careful not to smear the edge ...
— Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery - A Manual Of Cheap And Wholesome Diet • A. G. Payne

... king, but I could dig his grave? And who durst smile, when Warwick bent his brow? Lo, now my glory's smear'd in dust and blood! My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, Even now forsake me; and of all my lands, Is nothing left me, ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs

... Dress quickly in those clothes, and come out on deck. By the side of your bunk you will find tins of black and white paint to smear your face and hands. At the slightest refusal on your part to do as I bid you—if you utter a cry or make any noise to attract attention—I shall kill ...
— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy

... begin to blear, With fogs thick enough to shear, And we feel inclined to swear, At the month that comes to smear All things lovely, all things dear; We must bear ...
— Yorkshire Lyrics • John Hartley

... scoffed at the idea of his continuing firm, they attributed all sorts of base motives to him. He was often sorely provoked, but he acted upon the advice of that holy man who tells us that, when people throw mud at us, our wisdom is to leave it to dry, when it will fall off of itself, and not to smear our clothes by trying of ourselves to wipe it off. He had hearty helpers in Ned Brierley and his family; Ned himself being a special support, for the persecutors were all afraid of him. But his chief earthly comforter ...
— Frank Oldfield - Lost and Found • T.P. Wilson

... people coming back from the fair. Shut the door, Mary; I wouldn't like them to see how bare the house is; and I'll put a smear of ashes on the window, the way they won't see we're here ...
— Poets and Dreamers - Studies and translations from the Irish • Lady Augusta Gregory and Others

... low-hummed chantings. We had with us a small boy of ten or twelve years whose job it was to take care of the dogs and to remove ticks. In fact he was known as the Tick Toto. As this was his first expedition afield, his father took especial pains to smear him with fat from the lioness. This was to make him brave. I am bound to confess the effect was ...
— African Camp Fires • Stewart Edward White

... down that chimbly an' run away he wasn't a bit flustered, an' he didn't play hookey the balance of the day neither. He thess went down to the crik, an' washed the soot off his face, though they say he didn't no more 'n smear it round, an' then he went down to Miss Phoebe's school, an' stayed there till it was out. An' she took him out to the well, an' washed his face good for him. But nex' day he up an' went back to Mr. Clark's school—walked ...
— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart

... twain, as mighty a man as when first I marked him in our house drinking and making merry what time he came up out of Ephyra from Ilus son of Mermerus! For even thither had Odysseus gone on his swift ship to seek a deadly drug, that he might have wherewithal to smear his bronze-shod arrows: but Ilus would in nowise give it to him, for he had in awe the everliving gods. But my father gave it him, for he bare him wondrous love. O that Odysseus might in such strength consort ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... several means employed in snaring birds; one of the most common is to smear pieces of bamboo with the gum of the jack-tree, the former being tied to the branches of some wild fruit tree, upon which, when the fruit is ripe, the birds light and are caught by the bird lime. This is called ka riam thit. Another ...
— The Khasis • P. R. T. Gurdon

... darling?' was Midmore's first word, and 'No—I'm only winded—dear,' was Miss Sperrit's, as he lifted her out of her corner, her hat over one eye and her right cheek a smear of mud. ...
— A Diversity of Creatures • Rudyard Kipling

... there was something of wild unrest. The cool, salt flavor of the air spoke of wild stretches of the North Atlantic where sea-fogs have touched the eerie loneliness of Greenland bergs and passed it on to the wind. In this ghostly dusk of driving mist the smear of the rain across the face is like a touch of phantom hands coming out of unfathomed spaces, gentle but uncanny. All the soft perfumes of wood and field seem beaten to the ground by this rain which brings with its salt tang faint breathings of some ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard

... evidently impressed Ellen, for she stopped at once. Her sister had wiped the grit and the little smear of blood off her chin, and stood in the doorway holding her hand while one by one the other carriages drew up and the occupants alighted. Not a word was spoken till they had all assembled, then the young woman said: "Please come in and have a cup of tea," ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith

... without device are we left at the end. I have thought of what is to be done. Take a pot of honey to where he is chained and smear Sigmund's ...
— The Children of Odin - The Book of Northern Myths • Padraic Colum

... attend His beauteous patient, may he hope his friend; And prays that no corrosive disappointment May mar the lenient virtues of his ointment; Of which, a bit not larger than a shot, Or that more murd'rous thing, "a beauty spot," Warmed on the finger by the taper's ray, Smear o'er the eye affected twice a day. Proffer not gold—I swear by my degree, From beauty's lily hand to take no fee; No glittering trash be mine, I scorn such pelf, The eye, when cured, will ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 282, November 10, 1827 • Various

... occupation, provided they had had what the Mexican journals call the "corazon de los sportsmans." Youth, strength, courage, skill, exercised in a vagabondage that has all the nomadic charm without any of its drawbacks, are apt to sponge the old figures off the slate of life, leaving a teary smear, perhaps, to show where they have been, and room for fresh problems. At night over the camp-fire Mr. Ramsay gave a few pensive thoughts to the girl who regularly put two handkerchiefs under her pillow to receive the tears that welled out copiously when she was at last ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various

... girdled by mice should be wrapped up as soon as discovered, so that the wood shall not become too dry. When warm weather approaches, shave off the edges of the girdle so that the healing tissue may grow freely, smear the whole surface with grafting-wax, or with clay, and bind the whole wound with strong cloths. Even though the tree is completely girdled for a distance of three or four inches, it usually may be saved by this treatment, unless the injury extends into the wood. The water from the roots rises ...
— Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) • L. H. Bailey

... arnatto on the hair above the brow; while the forehead and cheeks are painted in various patterns with the same vermilion colour, which adds extreme ferocity to their appearance. Some of the men also smear their bodies with arnatto, as do the women. They are generally well-proportioned, and more elegant in figure than the other races. The women are noted for weaving excellent and durable hammocks of cotton—a plant which they cultivate ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston

... the low red roof of a house detached itself. By this time the sun was sinking in a smear of red across a delicately tinted sky. Its dying rays held some glittering object high up on ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... apply salt water (one-half ounce to the quart), extract of witch-hazel, a weak solution of oak bark, or camphorated spirit. If the surface is raw use bland powders, such as oxid of zinc, lycopodium, starch, or smear the surface with vaseline, or with 1 ounce of vaseline intimately mixed with one-half dram each of opium and sugar of lead. In cases of chafing rest must be strictly enjoined. If there is constitutional disorder or acrid sweat, 1 ounce ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... immediately depends; or he may give the latter, viz. the proportions and arrangement of the larger parts and the general masses of light and shade, and leave all the minuter parts of which those parts are composed a mere blotch, one general smear, like the first crude and hasty getting in of the groundwork of a picture: he may do either of these, or he may combine both, that is, finish the parts, but put them in their right places, and keep them in due subordination to the general ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... to speak again, when, after tapping at the door, an officer entered the room. His clothes were torn and soiled, there was a smear of blood on the sleeve of his coat, and he glanced ...
— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens

... thin pulp made with water and covered for an hour with paper or other impervious envelope, or water hotter than the hand can bear, or cupping, may be resorted to as a counterirritant. In cupping, shave the loins, smear them with lard, then take a narrow-mouthed glass, expand the air within by smearing its interior with a few drops of alcohol, setting it on fire and instantly pressing the mouth of the vessel to the oiled portion of the skin. As the air within the vessel cools it contracts, tending ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... when Konkrook came in view beyond the East Konk Mountains, a lurid smear on the underside of the clouds, and, at Gongonk Island and at the Company farms to the south, a couple of bunches of searchlights fingering about in the sky. When von Schlichten turned on the outside sound-pickup, he could hear the distant tom-tomming of heavy guns, and ...
— Uller Uprising • Henry Beam Piper, John D. Clark and John F. Carr

... he will this time, thought the Collector grimly, with a glance down at a smear across the knuckle of his right-hand glove. The sight of it cheered him and steadied his temper. "Possibly," said he aloud. "But your worships may not be aware—and as merciful men may be glad to hear—that this poor creature's offence against the Sabbath was committed under stress. Her mother ...
— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... inquisitive nature, they stare at every passer-by, and if the traveller quietly walks around them he will smile at the grotesque power they have of turning their head. When a young horse is especially slow in learning the use of the reins, I have known the cowboy smear the bridle with the brains of this clever bird, that the owl's facility in turning might thus be imparted ...
— Through Five Republics on Horseback • G. Whitfield Ray



Words linked to "Smear" :   obloquy, blot, accuse, moil, charge, grime, denigrate, defect, traduce, drag through the mud, calumniation, splodge, libel, defamation, fault, Pap smear, rub, cytologic specimen, traducement, badmouth, malign, fingermark, begrime, resmudge, inkblot, hatchet job, fingerprint, mar, blood, error, soil, cover, mistake, blotch, bemire, dirty, dust, assassinate, splotch, sully, calumny, blemish, colly, lower respiratory tract smear, vaginal smear



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