Adjacent Words

Besmirch definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BESMIRCH', v.t. [be and smirch.] To soil; to foul; to discolor. [Little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation" [syn: defame, slander, smirch, asperse, denigrate, calumniate, smear, sully, besmirch]
2: smear so as to make dirty or stained [syn: smirch, besmirch]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Date: 1599 sully, soil

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 soil, discolour. 2 dishonour; sully the reputation or name of. Etymology: BE- + SMIRCH

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Besmirch Be*smirch", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Besmirched; p. pr. & vb. n. Besmirching.] To smirch or soil; to discolor; to obscure. Hence: To dishonor; to sully. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(besmirches, besmirching, besmirched) If you besmirch someone or their reputation, you say that they are a bad person or that they have done something wrong, usually when this is not true. (LITERARY) He has accused local people of trying to besmirch his reputation. = sully VERB: V n

Moby Thesaurus

attaint, bedarken, bedaub, besmear, besmoke, besmutch, besoil, bespatter, bestain, black, blacken, blackwash, blot, blotch, blur, brand, call names, charcoal, cork, darken, daub, defile, denigrate, dinge, dirty, discolor, ebonize, engage in personalities, heap dirt upon, ink, mark, melanize, muckrake, murk, nigrify, oversmoke, revile, scorch, sear, shade, shadow, singe, slubber, slur, smear, smirch, smoke, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, soil, soot, spot, stain, stigmatize, sully, taint, tar, tarnish, throw mud at, vilify