Besmears

And instead of repairing and heightening the piece judiciously, with soft colors and a delicate pencil, — with a coarse brush and a great deal of whitewash, he daubs and besmears the piece he means to adorn. ❋ Unknown (2005)

Hoccleve's Poems, with a Glossary; an Answer to Thomas Paine; the Life of Lord Howe; a Supplement to Johnson's Dictionary: in the ill-tempered preface to which, he thus strangely speaks of that Dictionary: -- "this muddiness of intellect sadly besmears and defaces almost every page of the composition." ❋ Samuel Felton (N/A)

He staggers and falls; his head strikes the curb-stone; the blood besmears his face; the police lift him up and start with him to the station house. ❋ George W. Bain (N/A)

Now if he that covers himself "dishonoreth his head"; he that besmears his child with mud, how can it be less than making it abominable? ❋ Editor (1889)

This discovers that it is the body that first sullies and besmears the soul; here is the malum propter vicinum malum, this is the unhappy neighbourhood; for no sooner are they joined, no sooner are the body and the soul made brothers, but they are brethren in iniquity. ❋ 1634-1716 (1823)

Indiscriminate flatterers are no better than the snake which besmears its prey with slime, only to gorge it the more easily. ❋ Samuel James Arnold (1813)

And instead of repairing and heightening the piece judiciously, with soft colors and a delicate pencil, -- with a coarse brush and a great deal of whitewash, he daubs and besmears the piece he means to adorn. ❋ Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield (1733)

If our portly friend from Market Hilton had possessed the eyes of an Auguste Dupin, he could not have failed to note that my dress boots were caked with light yellow clay; which also, by the way, besmears my trousers. " ❋ Sax Rohmer (1921)