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smirch

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smirch¹

  • /smɜː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ

Where it comes from

From Middle English *smorchen ("to spatter, soil"; attested in besmorchid (“bespattered, soiled all over”)), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a derivative of Middle English smeoren, smuren, smeren (“to smear”) or related to Middle English smotry (“sooty, grimy”). Compare also Middle English bismotered (“bespattered, soiled”), Old French esmorcher (“to torture”), Middle English smoterly, smoterlich (“besmirched”), modern English smut.

noun smirches · smurch · smerch

  1. archaic, countable, uncountable Dirt, or a stain. 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. archaic, countable, figuratively, uncountable A stain on somebody's reputation. 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 smirches · smirching · smirched · smurch · smerch

  1. archaic, transitive To dirty; to make dirty. 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.

    Similar: besmirch, file, soil, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile, befilth, befoul

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

    Similar: besmirch, libel, muddy, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, defame, degrade, demean, demote, depress

smirch²

  • /smɜː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ

Where it comes from

Blend of smear + chirp.

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

Translations

Every language

verb to dirty

Españolensuciar
Françaissalir
Deutschbeschmutzen, verschmutzen
Русскийпятна́ть pjatnátʹ, мара́ть marátʹ

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Cite this
MLA

"smirch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/smirch. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

smirch. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/smirch

Chicago

"smirch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/smirch.

BibTeX
@misc{smirch_2026,
  title = {smirch},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/smirch},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}