smudge
Americannoun
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a dirty mark or smear.
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a smeary state.
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a stifling smoke.
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a smoky fire, especially one made for driving away mosquitoes or safeguarding fruit trees from frost.
verb (used with object)
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to mark with dirty streaks or smears.
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to fill with smudge, as to drive away insects or protect fruit trees from frost.
verb (used without object)
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to form a smudge on something.
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to become smudged.
White shoes smudge easily.
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to smolder or smoke; emit smoke, as a smudge pot.
verb
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to smear, blur, or soil or cause to do so
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(tr) to fill (an area) with smoke in order to drive insects away or guard against frost
noun
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a smear or dirty mark
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a blurred form or area
that smudge in the distance is a quarry
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a smoky fire for driving insects away or protecting fruit trees or plants from frost
Other Word Forms
- smudgedly adverb
- smudgeless adjective
- smudgily adverb
- unsmudged adjective
Etymology
Origin of smudge
1400–50; late Middle English smogen (v.) < ?
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.
My white shirt was smudged and dirty from sitting in the soot, and I brushed myself off and walked over to look out the window.
From Literature
Right now she was even wearing makeup: a tiny smear of brown over her eyes, black on her eyelashes, a smudge of red on her cheeks.
From Literature
Then the next wave was under her and the wind was howling and hurtling her toward the smudge of Nim’s island—“Faster than a city train!”
From Literature
I flip over the waterfall picture and squint at her smudged handwriting.
From Literature
He pressed until there was a clear smudge of his fingerprints.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
