besmirch
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.
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Steele doesn’t besmirch the data that punishes his Redhawks, but he also says “there’s something to winning.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
Mr Yusuf said he had never met Gill, and it was unreasonable to "besmirch" Reform UK, Nigel Farage and the party's millions of supporters.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
As it turns out, Murray’s story doesn’t besmirch Candy’s memory at all.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the West of trying to besmirch his country.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
“How dare you besmirch that magnificent image with your vintner’s hands.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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"Behaviour like that, whether it's at an Old Firm match or any other football match, besmirches that, and it should absolutely be seen as unacceptable."
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2022
“All the evidence of the fancy suits really is irrelevant and besmirches the defendant.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 2, 2018
Mud besmirches his van’s tiny, neat living space.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2018
It is unfortunate that this Times article indirectly besmirches the Yankees.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2017
The old one would be nothing but a past episode, a scarecrow revealed, which any sparrow impudently besmirches.
From Men in War by Andreas Latzko
“New banks didn’t even call themselves banks and instead used the expression caisses, meaning ‘deposits,’ so besmirched was the banking industry’s reputation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
"What happened thereafter has besmirched the unsuspecting town of Kidwelly," he said.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2025
But our own humanity has been besmirched, damaged, undermined by such silences, which, in many ways, represent the most powerful propaganda of all.
From Salon ● May 31, 2023
Securities and Exchange Commission, had wrongly besmirched Hindenburg’s “well-deserved reputation for thoroughness, precision and accuracy.”
From Reuters ● Feb. 2, 2023
Was there any kind of filth with which he had not besmirched himself, any sin and folly which he had not committed, any stain upon his soul for which he alone had not been responsible?
From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse
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Instead, “People getting ready to do things” is spelled out in egg yolk, besmirching the virginal purity of its white satin support; and “It’s only vanishing cream” is translucent shellac disappearing against deathly black.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2024
The businesses declared themselves outraged by the government besmirching their reputation.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2023
Like, say, besmirching an evening that featured Black women making Oscars history, with Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes joining Amy Schumer as the first trio of women to host the show.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2022
The film’s locations are one thing, and the horses in the stable something else again, but besmirching the reputation of hard-working stunt dogs is just unacceptable.
From Slate ● May 16, 2019
I am reminded of words used by one of my Swiss friends: “As soon as soldiers must get their fighting force from suggestions of puerile besmirching of the enemy, then war indeed becomes intolerably base.”
From The Better Germany in War Time Being some Facts towards Fellowship by Harold W. (Harold Williams) Picton
Vocabulary lists containing besmirch
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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