smudge

Meaning

Noun

1. A blemish or smear, especially a dark or sooty one.
2. Dense smoke, such as that used for fumigation.
3. 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.
4. A quantity of herbs used in suffumigation.

Verb

1. To obscure by blurring; to smear.
2. To soil or smear with dirt.
3. To use dense smoke to protect from insects.
4. To stifle or smother with smoke.
5. To burn herbs as a cleansing ritual (suffumigation).
6. To subject to ritual burning of herbs (suffumigation, smudging).

Synonyms

smear

stain

spot

blot

soil

blemish

smirch

smut

daub

slur

blur

smutch

speckle

mark

blotch

splotch

besmirch

moil

impurity

discoloration

speck

smoke

make dirty

macula

mar

patch

plaster

pop-up

raze

slack

smoulder

smudginess

soak

soot

spottiness

stains

steam

stigma

streak

sully

taint

tarnish

touch

turn

vapor

tache

measles

punctum

sooty mould

absorb

black blight

bad mark

besmear

black

blacken

black spots

blight

blister

blot out

bungle

defect

dirt

dirty

discolor

discolouration

fault

filth

flaw

fleck

fog

🌫️

lampblack

leak

maculation

macule

Pronounced as (IPA)

/smʌd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: *smogen

Cognate with Middle English: besmudded

Cognate with Middle English: smod

Cognate with Middle Dutch: smoddich

In summary

Derived from the verb (see below). Doublet of smutch.