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Smear   Listen
noun
Smear  n.  
1.
A fat, oily substance; oinment.
2.
Hence, a spot made by, or as by, an unctuous or adhesive substance; a blot or blotch; a daub; a stain. "Slow broke the morn, All damp and rolling vapor, with no sun, But in its place a moving smear of light."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Smear" Quotes from Famous Books



... 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, ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat

... life? mine own is gone; O, where's young Talbot? where is valiant John? Triumphant death, smear'd with captivity, Young Talbot's valor makes me smile at thee: When he perceived me shrink and on my knee, His bloody sword he brandish'd over me, And, like a hungry lion, did commence Rough deeds of rage and stern impatience; But when my angry guardant stood alone, Tendering my ruin ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

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

... 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 ...
— Yama (The Pit) • Alexandra Kuprin

... the smear of leaf mould upon his beaded moccasins. "Captain Percy's eyes are quick; he should have been an Indian. I went to the Paspaheghs to take them the piece of copper. I could tell Captain Percy a ...
— To Have and To Hold • Mary Johnston

... 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

... edges, place it upon the cardboard to which it is 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 work ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 232, April 8, 1854 • Various

... his attention was directed to the prisoner, on Tuesday afternoon last, by some boys in Fourteenth Street. Prisoner was standing on the side-walk, on the side of the street opposite Tammany Hall. He was armed with a small pewter squirt, with which he was trying to smear the front of that building by drawing up dirty water from the gutter. The range of the squirt did not appear to reach more than half-way across the street. The water used was very foul, leaving stains upon ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 • Various

... necessary are the services of an architect when building or remodeling a house. Trying to be your own architect is as foolish as drawing a sketch of little Jerry on canvas and then calling in a house painter to smear on a daub of blue for his coat, a bit of yellow for his hair, white for his collar, and just anything for the background. At worst, though, this futuristic result can be taken to the attic, turned face to the wall and forgotten; but a botched house won't let you forget. You have to live in it ...
— If You're Going to Live in the Country • Thomas H. Ormsbee and Richmond Huntley

... old age. And farther on, when he raised his eyes while crossing the little triangular piazza, and perceived a real tree against the leaden sky, that parasol pine of the Villa Aldobrandini which rises there like a symbol of Rome's grace and pride, it seemed to him but a smear, a little cloud of soot ascending from the downfall of ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... bottles of whisky to take upstairs. Jeremy, who can't be happy unless playing his part for all it's worth, became devoutly religious and made a tremendous fuss because ham was put on the table. He accused the proprietor of using pig's fat to smear all the cooking utensils, demanded to see the kitchen, and finally refused to eat anything but leban, which is a sort of curds. If Yussuf Dakmar had entertained suspicions of Jeremy's real nationality they were all resolved by the time that ...
— Affair in Araby • Talbot Mundy

... did not reply to your message sooner, for he could not find a messenger who was coming this way. It is a very simple matter to disenchant the maiden. You have only to go to the bank of the river, throw off your clothes, and smear yourself all over with mud till not a speck remains white. Then take the tip of your nose between your fingers, and say, 'Let the man become a crayfish.' Immediately you will become a crayfish, when you can descend into the river without any fear of being drowned. ...
— The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country • William Forsell Kirby

... 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 change ...
— Roast Beef, Medium • Edna Ferber

... ..." said Whitlow, thinking longingly of his ham sandwich, and its crunchy, moist green smear of pickle relish. ...
— Minor Detail • John Michael Sharkey

... of America had their representatives in Europe. Odysseus went to Ephyra for the man-slaying drug with which to smear his bronze-tipped ...
— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... the woods began again. They seemed to have no relation to the regularly spaced bursts of smoke along a little smear in the desert earth two thousand yards away—no connection at all with the strong voices overhead coming and going. It was as impersonal as the drive of the sea ...
— France At War - On the Frontier of Civilization • Rudyard Kipling

... mystery. The chair was a cheap one, made of white wood, and had the usual smooth strip of wood at the top. On the back of this piece of wood, a quarter of an inch or so from the bottom, on the left-hand side, was a faint smear of blood. The presence of the blood set me thinking. When found, the chair had been exactly eighteen inches from the body. The mere fact that the man had been stabbed from behind and to the heart, precluded any possibility ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby

... for her, and some warm milk, with the fish and good bread and butter, and a few slices of crisp pork which I had fried, and browned warmed-up potatoes. There was smear-case too, milk gravy and sauce made of English currants. She began picking at the food, saying that she could not eat; and I noticed that her lips were pale, while her face was crimson as if with fever. She had had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours except some crackers and ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... the hands are raised in prayer, when the lamp is lighted and wreathed with flowers, the outward observer may mistake and think the action is pujah to Agni, but God who reads the heart understands, and judges the thought and not the act. "Yes, my hand may smear on Siva's ashes, while at the same moment my soul may commune with God the ...
— Things as They Are - Mission Work in Southern India • Amy Wilson-Carmichael

... 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

... supposing it to be a pole, performed some imitations. But, unable long to preserve it upright from its weight, the sooty end fell on Master Snapper's book, who was reading a little work upon 'Affability.' The blow fairly knocked it out of his hand, and made a great smear on his frilled shirt, at which a loud laugh ensued. Now Master Snapper could not bear to be laughed at, and was so much out of humour all the evening that ...
— Forgotten Tales of Long Ago • E. V. Lucas

... exclusively. The pileus of the Fly Agaric is broad, convex, and of a rich orange scarlet [369] colour, with a striate margin and white gills. It gets its name, as also that of Flybane, from being used in milk to kill flies; and it is called Bug Agaric from having been formerly employed to smear over bedsteads so as to destroy bugs. It inhabits dry places, especially birchwoods, and pinewoods, having a bright red upper surface studded with brown warts; and when taken as a poisonous agent it causes intoxication, delirium, and death through narcotism. It is more common in Scotland than ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... however, long to wonder. Once more a horse stumbled, there was a crash, and a branch hurled Winston backwards into the wagon, which came to a standstill suddenly. When he rose something warm was running down his face, and there was a red smear on the hand he lighted the lantern with. When that was done he flung himself down from the wagon dreading what he would find. The flickering radiance showed him that the pole had snapped, and while one bronco still stood trembling on ...
— Winston of the Prairie • Harold Bindloss

... 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 ...
— The Khasis • P. R. T. Gurdon

... straighter. This now had the bad smell of a frame, a frame with himself planted right in the middle. He figured out the possibilities and came up with an answer which would smear Ross Murdock all over any map. If Kurt were waiting to meet friends out here, they could only be of ...
— The Time Traders • Andre Norton

... same old animal man, smeared over, it is true, with a veneer, thin and magical, that makes him dream drunken dreams of self-exaltation and to sneer at the flesh and the blood of him beneath the smear. The raw animal crouching within him is like the earthquake monster pent in the crust of the earth. As he persuades himself against the latter till it arouses and shakes down a city, so does he persuade ...
— Revolution and Other Essays • Jack London

... Cadwallo's tongue That hush'd the stormy main; Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: Mountains, ye mourn in vain Modred, whose magic song Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie Smear'd with gore and ghastly pale: Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail; The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, Dear as the ruddy drops that ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... used with the bitters. Mustard applied to the loins in the form of a 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 to ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... you've something to bawl for, but as I started to say, it was my thrift that brought me to my fortune. I was just as tall as that candlestick when I came over from Asia; every day I used to measure myself by it, and I would smear my lips with oil so my beard would sprout all the sooner. I was my master's 'mistress' for fourteen years, for there's nothing wrong in doing what your master orders, and I satisfied my mistress, too, during that time, you know what I mean, ...
— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter

... have worn them on my breast To wilt in the long day... I might have stemmed them in a narrow vase And watched each petal sallowing... I might have held them so—mechanically— Till the wind winnowed all the leaves And left upon my hands A little smear of dust. ...
— The Ghetto and Other Poems • Lola Ridge

... the metal floor. He noticed that a smear of her freshly-applied lipstick came off ...
— Double Take • Richard Wilson

... point, And disappear. Hoops of gold Circle necks, wrists, fingers, Pierce ears, Poise on heads And fly up above them in coloured sparkles. Gold! Gold! The opera house is a treasure-box of gold. Gold in a broad smear across the orchestra pit: Gold of horns, trumpets, tubas; Gold—spun-gold, twittering-gold, snapping-gold Of harps. The conductor raises his baton, The brass blares out Crass, crude, Parvenu, fat, powerful, Golden. Rich as the fat, clapping hands in the boxes. Cymbals, ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell

... itself brings up the rear of the procession. While these sacred objects are being handed out of the house, the men who are present rush up, wipe off the hallowed dust which has accumulated on them, and smear it over their own bodies, no doubt in order to steep themselves in their blessed influence. Thus the tree is carried as before to the centre of the temporary village, care being again taken not to ...
— Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. • Sir James George Frazer

... an invention. As to the waistcoat which 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 next day, ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.

... middle. There is nothing so awkward or so apt to give a bad impression as a letter improperly folded. It is bulky and unsightly. Private letters should always be sealed with wax, in color dark green or red. Black is used for mourning. In sealing a letter be careful to make a neat effect, and not to smear the wax all over the envelope. The seal is then stamped with your monogram, or, if you insist upon it, with your crest, but never with your coat of arms. For the purpose of sealing letters men use their seal rings or a little stamp which can be obtained at any silversmith's. When writing ...
— The Complete Bachelor - Manners for Men • Walter Germain

... Paragraph. Now you have begun on my punctuation. Don't you realize that you ought not to intrude your help in a delicate art like that with your limitations? And do you think that you have added just the right smear of polish to the closing clause of ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... as if 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

... 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, ...
— Somebody's Luggage • Charles Dickens

... Oorakins, (bowls of bark) full of that coarse vermillion which is found along the coast of Chibucto, and on the west-side of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) which they moisten with the blood of the animal if any remains, and add water to compleat the dilution. Then the old, as well as the young, smear their faces, belly and back with this curious paint; after which they trim their hair shorter, some of one side of the head, some of the other; some leave only a small tuft on the crown of their head; others cut their hair entirely off on the left or right side of it; some ...
— An Account Of The Customs And Manners Of The Micmakis And Maricheets Savage Nations, Now Dependent On The Government Of Cape-Breton • Antoine Simon Maillard

... smear happen to be on your hand?" asked Dunstan, who, besides belonging to the same mathematics section with Prescott was ...
— Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point - Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life • H. Irving Hancock

... stood in front of them. His face had a look of foolish ecstasy. He stared at Mr. Parsons, and as he stared he panted. There was a red smear on his white breast; his open jaws still dripped a pink slaver. It sprayed the ground in front of them, jerked out with ...
— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair

... accumulative tale which has sufficient plot to illustrate the fine points of the old tale completely. A poor woman who could barely earn a living had an idea and carried it out successfully.—Her need immediately wins sympathy in her behalf.—She asked her husband to make her a straw ox and smear it with tar. Then placing it in the field where she spun, she called out, "Graze away, little Ox, graze away, while I spin my flax!" First a Bear came out of the Wood and got caught by the tar so that the Straw Ox dragged him home. The old Man then put the Bear in the cellar. Then a Wolf, a Fox, ...
— A Study of Fairy Tales • Laura F. Kready

... letters run the opposite way in the end; and the change was due to the use of ink and other pigments for staining papyrus, parchment, or paper. If the hand in this case moved from right to left it would of course smear what it had already written; and to prevent such untidy smudging of the words, the order of writing was reversed from left rightward. The use of wax tablets also, no doubt, helped forward the revolution, ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... domestic at his board, Fall two, selected to attend their lord, Then last of all, and horrible to tell, Sad sacrifice! twelve Trojan captives fell.(289) On these the rage of fire victorious preys, Involves and joins them in one common blaze. Smear'd with the bloody rites, he stands on high, And calls the spirit ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... One noticed those small matters in the past, and was innocently thankful for them. Those lights sufficed us. There was something companionable even in the street lamp. But what is it now? You see it, when you are accustomed to the midnight gloom of war, shrouded, a funeral smear of purple in a black world. No bearing can be got from it now. What one looks into is the lightless unknown. I peer into the night and rain for some familiar and reasonable shape to loom—I am permitted to do this, for so far the police ...
— Waiting for Daylight • Henry Major Tomlinson

... aid, ascend the Panium, from whose summit could be seen the Pharos and the open sea. Then we would return home, passing along the quays, where we brushed against men of every nation, including the Cimmerians, clad in bearskin, and the Gymnosophists of the Ganges, who smear their bodies with cow-dung. There were continual conflicts in the streets, some of which were caused by the Jews' refusal to pay taxes, and others by the attempts of the seditious to drive out the Romans. Besides, the ...
— The Temptation of St. Antony - or A Revelation of the Soul • Gustave Flaubert

... 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 ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's • Laura Lee Hope

... Cadwallo's tongue, That hush'd the stormy main; 30 Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed; Mountains, ye mourn in vain Modred, whose magic song Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, 35 Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale: Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail; The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, 40 Dear ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... cut so that the blood ran from the wound. Now, after getting the prisoners to the canoe, he opened the treaty box in order to place therein the original instructions given to the messenger. If you will look at the paper you will observe a slight smear of blood. ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson

... overheat electric motors, mix sand with heavy grease and smear it between the stator and rotor, or wedge thin metal pieces between them. To prevent the efficient generation of current, put floor sweepings, oil, ...
— Simple Sabotage Field Manual • Strategic Services

... city lay spread at my feet, very delicate and beautiful in a silver network, with a black clump or two to southward, where the line of Bagley trees ran below the hill. I pulled out the letter that Anthony had given me. In the moonlight the brown smear of his blood was plain to see, running across ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch

... 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 worship. The common underlying ...
— The Makers and Teachers of Judaism • Charles Foster Kent

... clean warm water and plain soap, and fill the enema syringe (a half-pint size is useful). Smear the nozzle with vaseline, lean forward and insert into the anus, pointing a little to the left. Press the bulb, withdraw the nozzle, retain the liquid a few moments and a desire to go to ...
— Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia • Isaac G. Briggs

... 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 ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... stood To view another gap, within the round Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs. Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place. In the Venetians' arsenal as boils Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear Their unsound vessels in the wintry clime. * * * * * So, not by force of fire but art divine, Boil'd here a glutinous thick mass, that round Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld, But therein not distinguish'd, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various

... but not coldly so. Despite her imperious bearing, there was something seductive about the soft curves of her beautiful body; something to rouse the pulses of a man in the langour of her intensely blue eyes, and the full, sensuous lips, scarlet as a smear of ...
— Priestess of the Flame • Sewell Peaslee Wright

... despair, Fight but to die,—'Is Wilton there?'— With that, straight up the hill there rode Two horsemen drench'd with gore, 855 And in their arms, a helpless load, A wounded knight they bore. His hand still strain'd the broken brand; His arms were smear'd with blood and sand: Dragg'd from among the horses' feet, 860 With dinted shield, and helmet beat, The falcon-crest and plumage gone, Can that be haughty Marmion! . . . Young Blount his armour did unlace, And gazing on his ghastly face, 865 Said—'By Saint George, he's ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott

... and she applied her pocket handkerchief. What came peeling away under her pressure? It was the soft paper, and as she was passing the edge of the figure of the girl, she found a large smear following her finger. The peculiar brown of Indian ink was seen upon her handkerchief, and when she took it up a narrow hem of white had become apparent between the girl's head and its surroundings. Neither spectator spoke, they scarcely ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... lifted the shawl with a steady hand. There was an old white straw bonnet flattened down over the forehead; a wisp of blue ribbon string was blown across the face and over the red smear between the eyebrow and the hair; the eyes stared wide and glassy. But it was the same soft brown hair. The countess knew ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various

... into a ravine where blanched vegetation betokened complete seclusion from the sun, we clambered up the opposing steep emerging from an entanglement of jungle on a high and open ridge which commanded an unimpeded view to the west—a scene of theatrical clarity with a single theatrical smear. From a hollow far below slothful smoke filtered through the matted, sombre, dew-bespangled foliage, rose a few feet, and drifted abruptly, dissolving from diaphanous blue to nothingness. The resonant ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield

... when they went outside, and the glare of the fire above the fall emphasized the obscurity. Now the flames flung an evanescent flash of radiance across the whirling pool and the dark rock's side, and then sank again to a dim smear of yellow brightness while a haze of vapour whirled amidst the snow, for a high wind swept through the canyon. Sometimes they could see the boulders among which they stumbled, and the river frothing at their feet, but ...
— The Greater Power • Harold Bindloss

... 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

... corruption; slum, rookery. 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, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... rod dry; select a clean patch of cloth and smear it well with sperm or warmed cosmic oil, being sure that the cosmic has soaked into the patch well; scrub the bore with patch, finally drawing the patch smoothly from the muzzle to the breech, allowing the ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

... shattered themselves into sparks of fire upon the crystal and silver of the dinner-service, put a short flame into the blades of knives, and spread a rosy tint over the white of plates. A trail of purple, like a smear of blood on a blue shield, ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad

... the springs of the city, and rendered them unfit for use. After he had been shown all this, the stranger led him into another large chamber, filled with gold and precious stones, all of which he offered him if he would kneel down and worship him, and consent to smear the doors and houses of Milan with a pestiferous salve which he held out to him. tie now knew him to be the Devil, and in that moment of temptation, prayed to God to give him strength to resist. His prayer was heard - he refused the bribe. The ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Vol. I • Charles Mackay

... said Sobieska musingly. "I remember now that, while the rest of his face looked remarkably like a freshly scrubbed one, there was a long dark smear along one of Josef's eyebrows as we brought you into the house; but that is not enough to convict him of the treason, however strong a suspicion it arouses. Well, things are looking a trifle as if Vladimar not only knows ...
— Trusia - A Princess of Krovitch • Davis Brinton

... said Raffles, when he had knelt and felt and listened again. I whimpered a pious but inconsistent ejaculation. Raffles sat back on his heels, and meditatively wiped a smear of his own blood from the polished floor. "You'd better leave him to me," he said, looking and getting up ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung

... that Mr. Dalken 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 ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... 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

... this subject which are so admirably phrased in his books, works that seem to me to found one of their chief claims to distinction on this, that at last we have a writer who can treat intimately of human love without leaving one smear of the onion ...
— Tommy and Grizel • J.M. Barrie

... any more than you did," she answered, and calmly proceeded to smear on the remainder. "If you had let me seal with the first end of the stick, you'd have had all ...
— Georgina of the Rainbows • Annie Fellows Johnston

... admitted Tony, "but suppose that feller died awful slow, and went on hollering and clutching at the bags? And they couldn't of got that rock off'n him without a block and tackle, or done much to make things easy for him if they had, him being jest a smear, as you may say. Well, that cave wouldn't be a pleasant place to stay in, would it? And no one would have the nerve to snatch them bags away to bury 'em, 'cause a dying man, especially when he dies hard, can have an awful grip. So what they done was just to shovel the sand in on the ...
— Spanish Doubloons • Camilla Kenyon

... brothers, for she had spent one whole happy afternoon in the canyon with the colonel's son, watching him as he scrambled up the south bank, with the agility and sure-footedness of a goat, and hung for an hour in mid-air by one hand. So, while she ate her bread and smear-case, she made up her mind to follow the professor after the meal ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates

... cliff when I heard the clash of steel, and presently coming where I might look down into the cove I saw this: with his back to a rock and a smear of blood on his cheek stood Don Federigo, armed with my cut-and-thrust, defending himself against Joanna; and as I watched the flash of their whirling, clashing blades, it did not take me long ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol

... neat, fine-lined sketch with a brush and paint on plain, smooth glass; and, even when this last had been managed, the coloring process often washed out the outlines and made unsightly smudges, and, as every little line, spot or smear shows with painful distinctness when magnified on the sheet, we soon saw that amateur work on these lines would never do. Fortunately I remembered a process, which I once saw used by a microscopist, to make diagrams for the lantern to illustrate ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various

... 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

... 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 ...
— The Adventures of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons • James Francis Thierry

... for some weeks they went about in the shadow of this repulsive finger which was following after them, to touch them and destroy them with the black smear of shame. The men were silent and inclined to be sulky. They seemed to hold together. They seemed to be united into a strong, four-square silence and tension. They kept to themselves—and Alvina kept to herself—and Madame kept to herself. ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence

... paper less deadly dull, I will tell you. Your first and second fingers are smeared with ink, which shows that you write a great deal. This smeared class embraces two sub-classes, clerks or accountants, and journalists. Clerks have to be neat in their work. The ink smear is slight in their case. Your fingers are badly and carelessly smeared; therefore, you are a journalist. You have an evening paper in your pocket. Anyone might have any evening paper, but yours ...
— The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont • Robert Barr

... might have said it was a mouth of hell, So large the trap that by some sudden blow A man might backward fall and sink below. Who looked could see a harrow's threatening teeth, But lost in night was everything beneath. Partitions blood-stained have a reddened smear, And Terror unrelieved is master here. One feels the place has secret histories Replete with dreadful murderous mysteries, And that this sepulchre, forgot to-day, Is home of trailing ghosts that grope their way Along the walls ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo

... numbers of precious stones are to be found on its bottom, which the king of the island, instead of appropriating to his own use, allows certain poor people to dive for once or twice a-year, for their own profit, that they may pray for blessings upon his soul. On this occasion they smear their bodies with lemon juice, which prevents the leeches from hurting them while they are in the water. The water from this lake runs into the sea, at which place the inhabitants dig on the shore, at low water, for rubies, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... and opened a vigorous defence of 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 ...
— Love and Mr. Lewisham • H. G. Wells

... seizing on the feet and ankles, but ascending to the back and throat and fastening on the tenderest parts of the body. In order to exclude them, the coffee planters, who live amongst these pests, are obliged to envelope their legs in "leech gaiters" made of closely woven cloth. The natives smear their bodies with oil, tobacco ashes, or lemon juice[2]; the latter serving not only to stop the flow of blood, but to expedite the healing of the wounds. In moving, the land leeches have the power of planting one extremity on the earth and raising the other perpendicularly to watch ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent

... head instead of iron, the same stone with which they engrave seals: in addition to this they had spears, and on them was the sharpened horn of a gazelle by way of a spear-head, and they had also clubs with knobs upon them. Of their body they used to smear over half with white, 71 when they went into battle, and the other half with red. 72 Of the Arabians and the Ethiopians who dwelt above Egypt the commander was Arsames, the son of Dareios and of Artystone, the daughter of Cyrus, ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 2 (of 2) • Herodotus

... I mused, and then began to look at the postmarks as if a letter were something of very uncommon occurrence. I could make nothing of the illegible smear in the corner, however, and so opened it, ...
— Weapons of Mystery • Joseph Hocking

... get 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 sleepy grooms ...
— Sleep Walking and Moon Walking - A Medico-Literary Study • Isidor Isaak Sadger

... policy of sinking neutral ships on sight for military advantage, or "necessity," why shouldn't the soldiers pollute wells, kill trees, carry off the girls, smash the household furniture not worth taking away and smear the pictures on the wall, just for revenge or in the sheer lust ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller

... shabby hat was gone, and there was a smear of blood upon his cheek, also he laboured in his breathing, but his ...
— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol

... coronal of flowers surrounds the head, which is usually adorned by a large daub of 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 for ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston

... it may be sufficient to answer, that the antient Grecians oiled themselves all over; that some nations have painted themselves all over, as the Picts of this island; that the Hottentots smear themselves all over with grease. And lastly, that many of our own heads at this day are covered with the flour of wheat and the fat of hogs, according to the tyranny of a filthy and wasteful fashion, and all this without inconvenience. To this must be added the strict analogy between the use of ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... Latin; but my girl 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 ...
— Stories of Achievement, Volume IV (of 6) - Authors and Journalists • Various

... eyes, stretched out in the soiled and trampled snow, lay the wolf that a short time before had been gnawing a bone. The animal was stark dead. Not a muscle of its body moved. Its lips were drawn back, its jaws agape, and under the head was a growing smear of blood. It was not these things—not the fact but the INSTRUMENT of death that held Philip's eyes. The huge wolf had been completely transfixed by ...
— The Golden Snare • James Oliver Curwood

... them all for its own use, and perhaps will see to it that old buff strops once more find an open market. In the lack of old buff belts, you may mix up tallow and the ashes of burnt newspaper, and smear this unctuous compound on the strop. People who neglect these "tips," and who are clumsy, like most of us, may waste a forty-eighth part of their adult years in shaving. This time is worth economizing, and with a little forethought, an ideal razor-setter, tallow, buff belts, burnt newspapers, and ...
— Lost Leaders • Andrew Lang

... smiling eyes. As always, in the aimless din and multiplicity of streets he felt himself most securely at home. The smear of gestures, the elastic distortion of crowds winding and unwinding under the tumult of windows, gave him the feeling of a ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht

... something rattled inside, after which he noted a dark smear round the edge of the lid. He scraped this with his knife and thought the stuff was a waterproof gum the freighters used to caulk their canoes. It looked as if Strange had carefully made the joint watertight, and Thirlwell's ...
— The Lure of the North • Harold Bindloss

... no rat there now. The water was in spate with the autumn floods and the muddy ledge on which he had sat at his toilette was an invisible thing that sent up a smear of weed to tremble on the surface. But she continued to crouch down and watch the burn. Better than anything in nature she loved running water, and this was grey and icy and seemed to have a cold sweet smell, and she liked the slight squeaking ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West

... 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 ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... solemn, dreaming house in the late summer sunshine; he observed a robin issue out from a lime tree and inspect him sideways; and then another robin issue from another lime tree and drive the first one away. Then he noticed a smear of dust on his own left boot, and flicked it off with a handkerchief. Then, as he put his handkerchief away again, he saw Jenny coming ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... lovable or less did I present myself, my one endeavour and my sole care being that my body should be hale and strong and thereby well complexioned, or would you have me first anoint myself with pigments, [8] smear my eyes with patches [9] of 'true flesh colour,' [10] and so seek your embrace, like a cheating consort presenting to his mistress's sight and touch vermillion paste instead of his ...
— The Economist • Xenophon

... not attempt to sweep the carpet until it has been covered with dry salt. Then sweep it and no smear ...
— Fowler's Household Helps • A. L. Fowler

... health is going," Boileau would say to him, "because the duties of a comedian exhaust you. Why not give it up?" "Alas!" replied Moliere, with a sigh, "it is a point of honor that prevents me." "A what?" rejoined Boileau; "what! to smear your face with a mustache as Sganarelle, and come on the stage to be thrashed with a stick? That is a pretty point of honor ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... that has not 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 with ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... 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

... passed the sod stable, noting that one end was falling down, and was met on the veranda by Charnock's dogs. They sprang upon him with welcoming barks, and pushing through them, he entered the untidy living-room. Charnock sat at a table strewn with papers that looked like bills, and there was a smear of ink ...
— The Girl From Keller's - Sadie's Conquest • Harold Bindloss

... summit reaching, stood To view another gap, within the round Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs. Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place. In the Venetian arsenal as boils Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear Their unbound vessels ... So not by force of fire but art divine Boiled here a glutinous thick mass, that ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... mounts, and in these circumstances a good ink is very essential. Here is the recipe for making one quoted from the Engineer, and said to yield an excellent ink which, while not drying on the pad, will yet not readily smear when impressed upon paper: Aniline Red (Violet) one hundred and eighty grains, distilled Water two ounces, Glycerine one teaspoonful, Treacle one-half teaspoonful. The crystals of Aniline are powdered and dissolved in the boiling distilled ...
— One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed • C. A. Bogardus

... been was 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

... Rid of Ants—To rid the house of ants, smear the cracks and corners of the infested rooms ...
— Fowler's Household Helps • A. L. Fowler

... the black 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 and was ...
— The Adventures of Akbar • Flora Annie Steel

... 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 in your ...
— A Florentine Tragedy—A Fragment • Oscar Wilde

... 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 Empty House And Other Ghost Stories • Algernon Blackwood

... south-east trade, and the strong sun-warmed wind was a thing to bathe in; the bridge binoculars diligently swept the sharp blue line of horizon. Presently the Third Officer put his glass down. "There she is," said he, "two points on the starboard bow." We all looked, and we saw the tiny smear of smoke on the line. How strange it was; both of us coming up from nowhere and meeting on this roadless waste! In a quarter of an hour we raised her masts and funnel, and then we perceived it was ...
— The Relief of Mafeking • Filson Young

... in the southwest continued; the wind freshened, blowing in cooler streaks across acres of rattling rushes and dead marsh-grass. A dull light grew through the scudding clouds, then faded as the mid-day sun went out in the smother, leaving an ominous red smear overhead. ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... new clothes, while she had nothing to show. Then her father-in-law scolded her and told her that it was too late to make other arrangements and as she could not get any new clothes the best thing for her to do would be to smear her body with Gur and stick raw cotton all over it. A parrab soon came round and all the other women got out their new clothes and went to see the fun. The clumsy bride had no new clothes and she took her father-in-law's advice and smeared her body with ...
— Folklore of the Santal Parganas • Cecil Henry Bompas

... found himself without one, and asked me for mine, to wipe a smear of black from the ...
— Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point - Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life • H. Irving Hancock

... which the Krzyzaks will send, you had better smear a dog than a knight whom you love. I will give ...
— The Knights of the Cross • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... 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

... part of the sixteenth century, heard much of a fabled king whom they called El Dorado. [27] This king, it was said, used to smear himself with gold dust at an annual religious ceremony. In time the idea arose that somewhere in South America existed a fabled country marvelously rich in precious metals and gems. These stories stirred the ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... 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

... quite a desperate little attempt 'to be good', as she called it. But the figures had the old obstinate propensity—they WOULD NOT add up. When she had entered two or three laborious items in the account-book, Jip would walk over the page, wagging his tail, and smear them all out. Her own little right-hand middle finger got steeped to the very bone in ink; and I think that was ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... "They smear every thing about the entrance to the hive with a gum which is found between the cells which the Greeks call [Greek: erithakae]. They live under the discipline of an army, taking turns in resting and all doing their ...
— Roman Farm Management - The Treatises Of Cato And Varro • Marcus Porcius Cato

... have it nectar; with whipped ambrosia on top." Mrs. Draper troweled this statement on with a dashing smear, saving Sylvia from being forced to answer, by adding lightly to the man, "Is ambrosia anything that will ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield

... its discovery, and do you think those old Italians were such fools as to make fiddles that would be only fit to be heard when tried by their descendants two hundred years after they died?" James collapses, and getting a basin with some warm water, a cloth and a piece of sponge, proceeds to smear the latter up and down and round the sides of the instrument. The sponge and water soon show signs of the work in hand. "Very dirty, sir, hasn't been washed for a hundred years, I should think! There's a ticket, too, but I can't ...
— The Repairing & Restoration of Violins - 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. • Horace Petherick

... 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

... exhalations, Sends the white fog from the fen-lands, Sends disease and death among us! "Take your 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 avenge my father's murder!" Straightway then my Hiawatha Armed himself with all his war-gear, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... of triumphs enjoins, about which Dio 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 ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio

... fortune. Whenever a luckless traveller falls into their clutches they make the incident count for something. They stand expectantly about in their box-like public room; their whole stock consists of a little diluted wine and mastic, and if a bit of black bread and smear-lease is ordered, one is putting it down in the book, while the other is ferreting it out of a little cabinet where they keep a starvation quantity of edibles; when the one acting as waiter has placed the inexpensive morsel before you, he goes over to the book to make ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... 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 ...
— Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) • L. H. Bailey

... unintentionally contributed to Alfred's discontent. He had remarked that to putty up holes, paint a board or smear a hurricane deck was not much of a trade or calling, but to be an artist like Alfred's father was a profession that ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field

... political point of view, his writing about gold, not very intelligible in itself, and now become undecipherable, was but a smear, and gave no handle to the enemy. Even after the time of James II., and under the "respectable" reign of William and Mary, his caravan might have been seen peacefully going its rounds of the little English country towns. He travelled freely from one end of Great Britain ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... land 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 let Such ...
— Poems, 1799 • Robert Southey

... 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

... Ernest retired to dress 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

... purpose, towards certain openings in the hills where the sportsman takes up his stand. The desert lynx is sometimes met with, and hyenas, they say, occur as near to Gafsa as the Jebel Assalah. Arabs have told me that the fat of the hyena is used by native thieves and burglars to smear on their bodies when they go marauding. The dogs, they say, are so terrorized by the smell of it, so numbed with fear and loathing, that they have not the heart to bark. (Pliny records an ancient notion to the effect that dogs, on ...
— Fountains In The Sand - Rambles Among The Oases Of Tunisia • Norman Douglas

... Mark Lane, have made. I am not myself an Agriculturist; still, in—or rather near—the suburban villa in which I reside, I have an old cow, and a donkey on which my children ride. Directly I heard that the way to keep animals warm and comfortable in Winter was to smear them all over with oil, thus saving much of the cost of feeding them, I tried the plan on the aged cow. Perhaps the oil I used was not sufficiently pure. At all events the animal, which had never been known before to do more than proceed at a leisurely walk, rushed ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 14, 1893 • Various

... other houses worked an' slaved for, when The boy was but a youngster at my side, Some bonds we took the time he went to war; I've spent my strength against the want of age— We've always had some end to struggle for. Now shame an' ruin smear the ...
— When Day is Done • Edgar A. Guest

... Bible verses were written. Among the Jews of Galicia, before a babe is placed in the cradle for the first time, it is customary to strew into the latter little pieces of honey-comb. Among the Wotjaks we find the curious belief that those who, in eating honey, do not smear their mouth and hands with it, will die. With children of an older growth,—the second Golden Age,—honey and cakes again appear. Magyar maidens at the new moon steal honey and cakes, cook them, and mix a part ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain

... had pulled down the neat mission house, and they had pounded and ground the bright red bricks into the finest powder, which mixed with grease formed a paint to smear their naked bodies. Thus the only results of many years' teaching were the death of many noble men, the loss of money, the failure of the attempt; and instead of the enterprise leaving a legacy of inward spiritual grace to these "men and brethren," the ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker

... not to be depended on. It sounds like it. If the labourer gets his clothes soaked, he says they are "sobbled." The sound of boots or dress saturated with rain very nearly approximates to sobbled. But "gaamze" is the queerest word, perhaps, of all—it is to smear as with grease. Beans are said to be "cherky," which means dry. Doubtless the obese old gentleman in Boccaccio who was cured of his pains—the result of luxurious living—by a diet which forced him to devour beans for very hunger, did think them dry and cherky. They have come up again ...
— The Life of the Fields • Richard Jefferies

... contracted by a drawn string. Its general tint is grey; longitudinal bands of scarlet, green, violet, and purple radiate from the posterior and converge at the mouth, the hues blending rainbow-like. The brighter colours seem to have been carelessly and profusely applied, for they run when touched and smear the fingers. Among a family generally sad-hued and shrinking so conspicuous an example is quite prodigal and invites one to ponder upon the sportfulness of Nature. What special office in her processes does this fop of the species with prismatic ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield

... read 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 from ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Fuego a native touched with his finger some cold preserved meat which I was eating at our bivouac, and plainly showed utter disgust at its softness; whilst I felt utter disgust at my food being touched by a naked savage, though his hands did not appear dirty. A smear of soup on a man's beard looks disgusting, though there is of course nothing disgusting in the soup itself. I presume that this follows from the strong association in our minds between the sight of food, however circumstanced, and the idea ...
— The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals • Charles Darwin

... "What—that Inness smear?" retorted "My Lord" Cockburn, who still stood with the coal-scuttle in his hand ready for another chorus. "Positively, Waller, you Americans amuse me. Do you really think that you've got anybody about you who can paint ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith

... was only too pleased to crumple up a crape frill and to smear a black dress with sticky little fingers for the sake of the sugar which ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade

... Nymphs abhor, 90 The blood-smear'd mansion of gigantic THOR,— —Erst, fires volcanic in the marble womb Of cloud-wrapp'd WETTON raised the massy dome; Rocks rear'd on rocks in huge disjointed piles Form the tall turrets, and ...
— The Botanic Garden. Part II. - Containing The Loves of the Plants. A Poem. - With Philosophical Notes. • Erasmus Darwin

... undeceived her. "Fraulein 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 ...
— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai

... admiration of his rustic friends, and laying a foundation for remarking to them on his way home that the parson could not touch him at penmanship. I have observed with a little malicious satisfaction that such persons, arising in their pride from the place where they wrote, generally smear their signature with their coat-sleeve, and reduce it to a state of comparative illegibility. I like to see the smirking, impudent ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 44, June, 1861 • Various

... DOSE OF CASTOR OIL—The best way to give a child castor oil is as follows: Place the bottle containing the oil on its side on a piece of ice in the ice box; chill it thoroughly. Take a tablespoon and smear it with butter; pour the ice cold oil into the spoon; it will stick together like a piece of chewing gum and it will slide out of the buttered spoon in one lump. In this way it will not spread over the mouth and teeth and throat, leaving a bad taste, but will go straight ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Vol 2 (of 4) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague

... mine would 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 ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... bodies, wherewith after their manner they appear very fine. They have long deer's hair which is dyed red, and of which they make rings for the head, and other fine hair of the same color, to hang from the neck like tresses, of which they are very proud. They frequently smear their skin and hair with difference kinds of grease. They can almost all swim. They themselves make the boats they use, which are of two kinds, some of entire trees, which they hollow out with fire, hatchets and adzes, and which the Christians call ...
— Narrative of New Netherland • J. F. Jameson, Editor

... and man in guilt and fear The central fact of Nature owns; Kneels, trembling, by his altar-stones, And darkly dreams the ghastly smear ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... with his blundering touch would destroy the loveliness, making prose of the poem? The Galbraiths, Snelling, the greed for money, Janoah's jealousy and evil suspicions—ah, it did not take long for such influences to mar the peace of a heaven and smear the grime of earth upon its fairness! Only glimpses of perfection were granted the dwellers of this planet,—quick, transient flashes that mirrored a future free from finite limitations. He ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... external remedy is applied to any eczematous surface it is necessary to apply it on a cloth. Simply to smear it on ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... 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

... his heart will burst with hate! He will curse and he will cry. He will wait and wait and wait, Till again she passes by. Then like tiger from its lair He will leap from out his place, Down her, clutch her by the hair, Smear ...
— Ballads of a Bohemian • Robert W. Service

... letter, and as my fingers closed on it they met a damp smear, the meaning of which was ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch

... no leaf to shield Thy flaccid vest, that, as the gale blows high, Flaps, and alternate folds around thy head.— So stands in the long grass a love-craz'd Maid, Smiling aghast; while stream to every wind Her gairish ribbons, smear'd with dust and rain; But brain-sick visions cheat her tortur'd mind, And bring false peace. Thus, lulling grief and pain, Kind dreams oblivious from thy juice proceed, ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward

... 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 ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue

... cheeses?" asked the man. "Ah, Freddy," said Catherine, "I smeared the cart-ruts with the butter and the cheeses will come soon; one ran away from me, so I sent the others after to call it." Said Frederick, "You should not have done that, Catherine, to smear the butter on the road, and let the cheeses run down the hill!" "Really, Frederick, you should have told me." Then they ate the dry bread together, and Frederick said, "Catherine, did you make the house safe when you came away?" "No, Frederick, you should ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... sapling he paused and picked up Leverett's rifle. Something left a red smear on his palm as he worked the ejector. It ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert Chambers

... women, go down-stairs again, every one of you; I won't have you here. Look!" says Mr. Superintendent, suddenly pointing to a little smear of the decorative painting on Miss Rachel's door, at the outer edge, just under the lock. "Look what mischief the petticoats of some of you have done already. Clear out! clear out!" Rosanna Spearman, who was nearest ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins

... there in my arms, as I kneeled on the stones, lay Dolly, her head fallen back and out of her hood, as white as a lily, dead too in an instant, for she was stabbed through her heart, with her life-blood in a great smear down her side, and all ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... saw himself later lying just outside the lip of a shell-crater, blind, helpless, his face a shredded smear when he felt it with groping fingers. He remembered that he lay there wondering, because of the darkness and the strange silence and the pain, if he were dead and burning ...
— The Hidden Places • Bertrand W. Sinclair



Words linked to "Smear" :   error, cytologic specimen, calumny, stain, colly, denigrate, defect, hatchet job, gastric smear, cytologic smear, vilification, fingermark, smutch, blotch, defamation, inkblot, soil, spot, splotch, oral smear, dust, lower respiratory tract smear, smudge, mar, vaginal smear, blot, blemish, accuse, grime, dirty, rub, cover, fingerprint, sully, blood, libel, mistake, besmirch, blur, Pap smear, malignment, slur, splodge



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