different between smear vs taint

English

Etymology

From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-Germanic *smirwijan?. Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren, Low German smeren, German schmieren.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: smî, IPA^(key): /sm??/
• (US) enPR: smîr, IPA^(key): /smi?/, IPA^(key): /sm??/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Verb

smear (third-person singular simple present smears, present participle smearing, simple past and past participle smeared)

1. (transitive) To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.

   Synonyms: apply, daub, plaster, spread

   The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.

   • 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, Chapter 5, p. 74,^[2]

     In general, all bodies whose surfaces are even will […] stick to each other, and if a liquid be smeared over either surface, their cohesion will be still the stronger.

   • 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, New York: Penguin,^[3]

     Then you would kneel and smear a handful of pomade through my hair, comb it over.

2. (transitive) To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.

   Synonyms: bedaub, coat, cover, daub, layer, plaster

   She smeared her lips with lipstick.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 2,^[4]

     Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

     They must lie there: go carry them; and smear

     The sleepy grooms with blood.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 10 [11], lines 725-727,^[5]

     […] a Vessel of huge bulk,

     Measur’d by Cubit, length, & breadth, and highth,

     Smeard round with Pitch,

   • 1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Vintage, 2010, p. 53,^[6]

     […] it’s better if we admit to disliking and hating them, than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo-liberal sentimentality.

3. (transitive) To make something dirty.

   Synonyms: besmirch, dirty, soil, sully

   • 1583, Arthur Golding (translator), The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, London: George Bishop, Sermon 41, p. 246,^[7]

     A man may bee smeared or grimed, and euerie man shall laugh at him, and yet he himselfe shall not perceiue it a whit.

   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskill, North and South, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 2, Chapter 11, p. 147,^[8]

     […] she returned, carrying Johnnie, his face all smeared with eating,

   • 2016, Ali Smith, Autumn, Penguin, 2017, Chapter 2,^[9]

     His hands and forearms, his face, his good shirt and suit are smeared from the dustbins and climbing the fence,

4. (transitive) (of a substance, etc.) To make a surface dirty by covering it.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 21, p. 263,^[10]

     a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin

   • 1982, Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Knopf, 1989, Chapter 6, p. 168,^[11]

     a rust spot smearing the back of the sink

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, Chapter 12, p. 323,^[12]

     Wet leaves smeared the pavement.

5. (transitive) To damage someone's reputation by slandering, misrepresenting, or otherwise making false accusations about them, their statements, or their actions.

   Synonyms: badmouth, besmirch, defame, sully, vilify

   The opposition party attempted to smear the candidate by spreading incorrect and unverifiable rumors about their personal behavior.

   • 1914, James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, p. 164,^[13]

     May everlasting shame consume

     The memory of those who tried

     To befoul and smear th’ exalted name

     Of one who spurned them in his pride.

   • 1976, Ng?g? wa Thiong'o, “J.M.—A Writer’s Tribute” in Writers in Politics, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 82,^[14]

     The imperialist foreigners then in the offices of the Nation Newspapers would not allow the African staff to review it. They handled it themselves in order to smear the book and its author and his celebration of Mau Mau resistance.

   • 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, New York: Norton, “Neelay Mehta,”^[15]

     They’ll smear him on the country’s dial-up bulletin boards as the worst traitor.

6. (transitive) To cause (something) to be messy or not clear by rubbing and spreading it.

   Synonyms: blur, smudge

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, London: Bradbury and Evans, Chapter 44, p. 457,^[16]

     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.

   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine, 1973, Book 2, Chapter 5, p. 419,^[17]

     Then there are four lines smeared so that I can only read went 5 days ago.

   • 2007, Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain, New York: Weinstein Books, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 56,^[18]

     Bird droppings, smeared by the strokes of rain and dried by the heat, streaked its sides.

7. (intransitive) To become messy or not clear by being spread.

   Synonym: smudge

   The paint is still wet — don't touch it or it will smear.

8. (transitive) To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.
   • 1970, Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, New York: Fawcett, 1971, Chapter 2, p. 84,^[19]

     ciphers smeared on the windows of condemned shops

   • 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 39, p. 311,^[20]

     smear crude words on the walls in the victim’s own blood as evidence of his final cult-related frenzy

   • 2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould’s Book of Fish, New York: Grove Press, 2002, “The Freshwater Crayfish,”^[21]

     […] she brought a red daubed finger up to my cheek & began to smear markings on my face.

9. (transitive) To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.
   • 1864, Richard F. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, London: Tinsley Brothers, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 43,^[22]

     small wooden dolls smeared red as though with blood

   • 1917, William Carlos Williams, “Pastoral” in Al Que Quiere!, Boston: The Four Seas Company, p. 15,^[23]

     the fences and outhouses

     built of barrel-staves

     and parts of boxes, all,

     if I am fortunate,

     smeared a bluish green

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Penguin, 1994, Chapter 2.1, p. 73,^[24]

     They paid the tonga-wallah double his regular fare and smeared his forehead pink and that of his horse green for good measure.

10. (transitive) To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.
    • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 37,^[25]

      […] he smeared his ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.

    • 1979, William Styron, Sophie’s Choice, New York: Random House, Chapter 3, p. 58,^[26]

      With the lazy appetite of a calf mooning over a salt lick, he smeared his sizable nose against her face,

    • 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, New York: Knopf, Chapter 6, p. 74,^[27]

      […] what was it with all those village people who could not stand on their feet without reaching out to smear their palm on a wall?

11. (transitive) To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.
    • 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, London: Richard Bentley, Volume 1, Chapter 13, p. 198,^[28]

      He had […] a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck, with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke:

    • 1926, D. H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent, London: Heinemann, 1955, Chapter 5, p. 85,^[29]

      The boatman rowed short and hard […] , only pausing at moments swiftly to smear the sweat from his face with an old rag he kept on the bench beside him.

    • 1960, Katherine Anne Porter, “Holiday” in Douglas and Sylvia Angus (eds.), Contemporary American Short Stories, New York: Ballantine, 1983, p. 323,^[30]

      […] she stood and shook with silent crying, smearing away her tears with the open palm of her hand.

12. (climbing) To climb without using footholds, using the friction from the shoe to stay on the wall.

Derived terms

• asmear
• besmear
• smearer

Translations

Noun

smear (countable and uncountable, plural smears)

1. A mark made by smearing.

   Synonym: streak

   This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 2, Chapter 8, p. 108,^[31]

     A smear of decisive lead-coloured paint had been laid on to obliterate Henchard’s name, though its letters dimly loomed through like ships in a fog.

   • 1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet, London: Macmillan, Part 2, Chapter 8,^[32]

     Vast avalanches had left their dirty smears on the opposing slopes,

   • 1952, Nevil Shute, The Far Country, London: Heinemann, Chapter 2,^[33]

     she bought a couple of rolls filled with a thin smear of potted meat for her breakfast

   • 2005, John Banville, The Sea, London: Picador, Part 2, p. 228,^[34]

     I could see the roofs of the town on the horizon, and farther off and higher up, a tiny silver ship propped motionless on a smear of pale sea.

2. (countable, uncountable) A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.

   Synonyms: calumny, slander, slur, mudslinging

   • 1752, Theophilus Cibber, A Lick at a Liar, London: R. Griffiths, p. 7,^[35]

     I should have held him quite beneath my Notice, as is all he utters, but that the Appetite of Slander, in many, is too predominant; and, ’tis possible, when the filthiest Fellow throws a Profusion of Dirt, some may chance to stick, if not timely thrown off; I shall endeavour therefore, to wipe away the sooty Smears of this Chimney-sweeper, by relating a simple Fact, which will, I flatter myself, amply confute the malicious Tales of this unprovoked, rancorous Mortal:
3. (biology) A preparation to be examined under a microscope, made by spreading a thin layer of a substance (such as blood, bacterial culture) on a slide.

   Synonym: squash

4. (medicine) A Pap smear (screening test for cervical cancer).

   Synonyms: cervical smear, Pap test

   I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon for a smear.

5. (radio, television, uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.
   • 1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section

     In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.

   • 1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

     Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.

6. (climbing) A maneuver in which the shoe is placed onto the holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact
7. (music) A rough glissando in jazz music.

Derived terms

• cervical smear
• smear campaign
• smear case
• smeary

Translations

References

Anagrams

• MASER, Mares, Marse, mares, marse, maser, mears, rames, reams

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /te?nt/
• Rhymes: -e?nt

Etymology 1

From Middle French teint, from Old French teint (past participle of teindre (“to dye, to tinge”)), from Latin tinctum (past participle of tingere).

Noun

taint (plural taints)

1. A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food
2. A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish
3. (obsolete) tincture; hue; colour
4. (obsolete) infection; corruption; deprivation

   • He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove.

5. (programming) A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
   • 2006, Jim Chow, Stanford University. Computer Science Dept, Understanding data lifetime (page 33)

     Using Apache version 1.3.29 and Perl version 5.8.2, we tracked the following sequence of taints […]

Translations

Verb

taint (third-person singular simple present taints, present participle tainting, simple past and past participle tainted)

1. (transitive) To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
2. (transitive) To spoil (food) by contamination.
3. (intransitive) To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
4. (intransitive) To be affected with incipient putrefaction.

   Meat soon taints in warm weather.

5. (transitive, computing, programming) To mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
6. (transitive, Australia, finance) To invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.

Translations

Related terms

• tainture

Etymology 2

From Middle English taynt, aphetic form of attaynt, atteynt, from Old French atteinte (“a blow, stroke”). Compare with attaint.

Noun

taint (plural taints)

1. A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
2. An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner.

Translations

Verb

taint (third-person singular simple present taints, present participle tainting, simple past and past participle tainted)

1. (transitive) To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
   • 1624, Philip Massinger, The Parliament of Love

     Do not fear; I have / A staff to taint, and bravely.

2. (intransitive) To thrust ineffectually with a lance.

Etymology 3

Reportedly from the phrase “'tain't your balls and 'tain't your ass”. Ascribed to E.E. Landy's Underground Dict. (1972) is the following explanation: ‘'taint their ass and 'taint their pussy.’

Noun

taint (plural taints)

1. (US, slang) The perineum.
   • 2000 June 17, "Marc Newman" (username), "Re: Americas are overated", in talk.politics.guns, Usenet:

     Sorry you feel that way. But since your mother sucks cocks in hell if I go there I won't be rotting.....I'll be on line right behind you hoping to get another good head job from your Mom or Sister....if you can remember which is which.......(Moms the one with the beard on her taint)

   • 2005 July 14, "Noodles Jefferson" (username), "Re: My Wife's Raw Comments", in rec.sport.pro-wrestling, Usenet:

     Even her taint's raw?

   • 2010 February 22, "Duchamanos" (username), "Re: Huck Finn 2010-anyone going?", in rec.sport.disc, Usenet:

     Did you know that guy has absolutely no tan lines? He'll show his taint to prove it!

   • 2017, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, HBO:

     Thats right, Alex Jones is trying to sell you sloppy wet rags for your tait [sic]. And-- and when you are done wiping down the area between your genitals and anus with a glorified wet nap...

     And look-- look, this tactical taint wipe has demonstrated incredible results, hasn't it, Doctor?

Translations

Etymology 4

Contraction of it ain't.

Contraction

taint

1. Alternative spelling of 'taint

References

• taint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• taint at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Nitta, Tanit, Titan, nitta, tinta, titan