different between smirch vs blur

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(?)t?

Etymology 1

Attested since the 15th century; possibly from Old French esmorcher (“to torture”), from Latin morsus (“bitten”).

Noun

smirch (countable and uncountable, plural smirches)

1. Dirt, or a stain.
   • 1998, Michael Foss, People of the First Crusade, page 6, ?ISBN.

     Too often, in the years between 800 and 1050, the everyday sun declined through the smirch of flame and smoke of a monastery or town robbed and burnt.

2. (figuratively) A stain on somebody's reputation.
   • 2008, W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, page 33, ?ISBN.

     there were some business transactions which savored of dangerous speculation, if not dishonesty; and around it all lay the smirch of the Freedmen's Bank.

Verb

smirch (third-person singular simple present smirches, present participle smirching, simple past and past participle smirched)

1. (transitive) To dirty; to make dirty.

   Synonyms: besmirch, soil

   • 1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act I Scene III, lines 101-04

     CELIA. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,

     And with a kind of umber smirch my face;

     The like do you; so shall we pass along,

     And never stir assailants.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To harm the reputation of; to smear or slander.

   Synonym: besmirch

Derived terms

• besmirch

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “smirch”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

Meld of smear and chirp

Noun

smirch (plural smirches)

1. A chirp of radiation power from an astronomical body that has a smeared appearance on its plot in the time-frequency plane (usually associated with massive bodies orbiting supermassive black holes)
   • 2003, B. S. Sathyaprakash, BF Schutz, "Templates for stellar mass black holes falling into supermassive black holes", Classical and Quantum Gravity, volume 20, no. 10

     The strain h(t) produced by a smirch in LISA is given by h(t) = ?-A(t)cos[(t) + ?(t)]

   • 2005, John M. T. Thompson, Advances in Astronomy: From the Big Bang to the Solar System, page 133, ?ISBN.

     By observing a smirch, LISA offers a unique opportunity to directly map the spacetime geometry around the central object and test whether or not this structure is in accordance with the expectations of general realtivity.

Anagrams

• chirms, chrism

English

Etymology

From earlier blurre, probably an alteration of blear, from Middle English bleren, from Old English blerian. Compare Scots blore, bloar (“to blur, cover with blots”). More at blear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl?(?)/

Verb

blur (third-person singular simple present blurs, present participle blurring, simple past and past participle blurred)

1. To make indistinct or hazy, to obscure or dim.

2. To smear, stain or smudge.

3. (intransitive) To become indistinct.
4. To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken.
   • 1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay

     His eyes are blurred with the lightning's glare.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To sully; to stain; to blemish, as reputation.

   • Sarcasms may eclipse thine own, / But cannot blur my lost renown.

6. (graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus away from.
   • 2003, John Pollock, JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition (page 175)

     Then give this box focus to blur the first one: […]

   • 2001, Martin Webb, Michel Plungjan, Keith Drakard, Instant JavaScript (page 678)

     These form elements need to have an onFocus event handler to blur the current focus.

Synonyms

• (make indistinct or hazy): pixelate, smooth
• (move input focus from): unfocus

Antonyms

• sharpen

Translations

Noun

blur (plural blurs)

1. A smear, smudge or blot
2. Something that appears hazy or indistinct
3. (obsolete) A moral stain or blot.
   • 1548, Nicolas Udall, The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente:

     […] with her raillyng sette a great blurre on myne honesty

Derived terms

• motion blur

Translations

Adjective

blur (comparative more blur, superlative most blur)

1. (Malaysia, Singapore, informal) In a state of doubt or confusion.

Anagrams

• Burl, burl