Smudge vs. Smear — What's the Difference?

To make dirty, especially in one small area

To spread or daub (a surface, for example) with a sticky, greasy, or dirty substance.

To smear or blur (something)

To apply by spreading or daubing

To fill (an orchard or an inhabited area) with dense smoke from a smudge pot in order to prevent damage from frost or to repel insects.

To cause to be blurry or spread in unwanted places

To smear something, such as dirt or soot.

To stain or attempt to destroy the reputation of; vilify

To become smudged or blurred

(Slang) To defeat utterly.

A blotch or smear.

To spread easily in an undesired way

A blurry or indistinct part or image

A mark made by smearing; a spot or blot.

A smoky fire used to protect against frost or to repel insects.

A substance to be spread on a surface.

A blemish or smear, especially a dark or sooty one.

(Biology) A sample, as of blood or bacterial cells, spread on a slide for microscopic examination or on the surface of a culture medium.

Dense smoke, such as that used for fumigation.

Vilification or slander.

(US) A heap of damp combustibles partially ignited and burning slowly, placed on the windward side of a house, tent, etc. to keep off mosquitoes or other insects.

A vilifying or slanderous remark.

"stick of incense"}} A quantity of herbs used in suffumigation.

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

To obscure by blurring; to smear.

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

To soil or smear with dirt.

(transitive) To make something dirty.

To use dense smoke to protect from insects.

(transitive) of a substance, etc. To make a surface dirty by covering it.

To stifle or smother with smoke.

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

To burn herbs as a cleansing ritual (suffumigation).

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

To subject to ritual burning of herbs (suffumigation, smudging).

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

A suffocating smoke.

(transitive) To write or draw (something) by spreading a substance on a surface.

A heap of damp combustibles partially ignited and burning slowly, placed on the windward side of a house, tent, or the like, in order, by the thick smoke, to keep off mosquitoes or other insects.

(transitive) To cause (something) to be a particular colour by covering with a substance.

That which is smeared upon anything; a stain; a blot; a smutch; a smear.

(transitive) To rub (a body part, etc.) across a surface.

To stifle or smother with smoke; to smoke by means of a smudge.

(transitive) To attempt to remove (a substance) from a surface by rubbing.

To smear; to smutch; to soil; to blacken with smoke.

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

A smoky fire to drive away insects

A mark made by smearing.

A blemish made by dirt;

A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.

Make a smudge on; soil by smudging

(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.

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

Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.

(climbing) A maneuver in which the shoe is placed onto the holdless rock, and the friction from the shoe keeps it in contact

(music) A rough glissando in jazz music.

To overspread with anything unctuous, viscous, or adhesive; to daub; as, to smear anything with oil.

To soil in any way; to contaminate; to pollute; to stain morally; as, to be smeared with infamy.

To smudge, blur, or render indistinct (writing, pictures, etc.).

To vilify (a person); to damage (a person's reputation), especially falsely or by unfair innuendo, and with malicious intent.

A fat, oily substance; oinment.

Hence, a spot made by, or as by, an unctuous or adhesive substance; a blot or blotch; a daub; a stain.

Slanderous defamation

A thin tissue or blood sample spread on a glass slide and stained for cytologic examination and diagnosis under a microscope

A blemish made by dirt;

An act that brings discredit to the person who does it;

Stain by smearing or daubing with a dirty substance

Make a smudge on; soil by smudging

Cover (a surface) by smearing (a substance) over it;

Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone;