besmear

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Smirch, smirch, v.t. to besmear, dirty: to degrade in fame, dignity, &c.—n. a stain.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Dark streams of welling blood besmear Thy limbs where dust and mire adhere, Nor have I strength, weighed down by woe, Mine arms about thy form to throw.

From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)

The women besmear themselves with the most disgusting filth.

From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia by Frazer, James George, Sir

I lose myself in the recollections of my childhood like an old man … I do not expect anything further in life than a succession of sheets of paper to besmear with black.

From The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters by McKenzie, Aimée G. Leffingwel

And although we may besmear our liver and brain in the mire, how could we show our gratitude, even to so slight a degree as one ten-thousandth part.

From Hung Lou Meng, Book I Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by Joly, H. Bencraft