smudge

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.

While we followed the police, we could see the boat – a thin black smudge on a milky sea – to our left.

From BBC • Jun. 17, 2025

I got a few distant glimpses during the first few years I lived here, a gray-green smudge on the horizon.

From Slate • Oct. 16, 2024

The coolest collegiate women’s basketball player on the planet routinely produces plays so picturesque, every smudge is briefly met with a pained annoyance that inspires her to retrieve the brush and swirl anew.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2024

At church services across the country, clergy members will smudge crosses on parishioners’ foreheads, murmuring, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2024

She looked down at Ess, at the bits of leaf and sand in her hair and the smudge on her cheek.

From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder