smeary

English

Etymology

From Middle English *smery, *smeri, from Old English smeoruwiġ (“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”), from Proto-West Germanic *smerwig, equivalent to smear +‎ -y.

Adjective

smeary (comparative smearier, superlative smeariest)

1. Having or showing smears.

   Synonyms: smeared, smudged, soiled

   • 1909, Robert W. Service, “The Song of the Mouth-Organ” in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto: William Briggs, p. 103,^[1]

     I voice the weary, smeary ones of earth,

     The helots of the sea and of the soil.

   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, 2010, Chapter 7, p. 41,^[2]

     They had Rembrandt on the calendar that year, a rather smeary self-portrait due to imperfectly registered colour plates.

   • 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan, New York: Random House, 2009, Chapter 5, p. 132,^[3]

     The letters were executed clumsily, with a smeary black kindergarten exuberance.

2. Tending to smear or soil.
   • 1986, Stephen King, It, New York: Signet, 1987, Part 3, Chapter 11, p. 523,^[4]

     […] stamped again and again in smeary red ink that looked like blood, was one word: CANCEL.

3. Having a consistency like grease; covered with such a substance.

   Synonyms: adhesive, greasy, sticky, viscous

   • 1582, Richard Stanyhurst (translator), Thee First Foure Bookes of Virgil his Aeneis, Leiden: John Pates, dedicatory epistle,^[5]

     And are there not diuerse skauingers of draftye poëtrye in this oure age, that bast theyre papers wyth smearie larde sauoring al too geather of thee frying pan?

   • 1896, W. S. Gilbert, The Grand Duke, Act I, in The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan, New York: The Modern Library, 1936, p. 675,^[6]

     When your lips are all smeary—like tallow,

     And your tongue is decidedly yallow,

     With a pint of warm oil in your swallow,

     And a pound of tin-tacks in your chest—

Derived terms

• smearily
• smeariness

Anagrams

• Rameys, Ramsey, my arse