How to Use besmirch in a Sentence

besmirch

verb
Definition of besmirchnext
Synonyms for besmirchnext
  • When the humans had first started to besmirch the Earth with the things, Qumqam had thought them hideous.
    — Saladin Ahmed, Slate Magazine, 6 Feb. 2017
  • The agency record will be besmirched and the public misled.
    — Charles Tiefer, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2023
  • Point here is not to besmirch the reputation of that 2012 Notre Dame team.
    — Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star, 28 Oct. 2017
  • While their results have improved in their third season, the Loons still feel besmirched.
    — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 10 July 2019
  • And don’t worry about the movie retreading the same ground Johnny Depp besmirched — the film is rumored to be a prequel of some kind.
    — Ben Meyerson, RedEye Chicago, 15 June 2018
  • But rumors that the film besmirched the Rajputs' honor did not die, egged on by leaders of a fringe group known as the Rajput Karni Sena.
    — Shashank Bengali, latimes.com, 25 Jan. 2018
  • The enemies of a strong Israel besmirch me, calling me and my party racist.
    — Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Why does Brady besmirch himself by appearing on those airwaves in the first place?
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2018
  • When Andy Herrera grabbed the besmirched the croqueta, it was smeared in sugary, white frosting.
    — Carlos Frías, miamiherald, 19 Feb. 2018
  • The name of their club’s benefactor was, very clearly, being besmirched.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Yet anyone concerned that the result might besmirch their memory of Heat can rest easy.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 9 Aug. 2022
  • How dare the Vikings fans besmirch our good names — what was left of them, anyway — with unfounded and spurious slanders.
    — Mike Newall, Philly.com, 18 Jan. 2018
  • But steady results eluded him and his final seasons at both schools were besmirched with losing records.
    — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 12 Oct. 2019
  • At 9:03 Eastern, the left is going to be in the process of trying to smear, besmirch, slander, destroy the character of whoever the president picks.
    — Fox News, 10 July 2018
  • The head of the Suez Canal Authority at the time dismissed his remarks as an attempt to besmirch Egypt’s reputation.
    — Rory Jones, WSJ, 31 Mar. 2021
  • All signs point to a future besmirched by the likes of Pablo Escobar, compared to whom the current combatants are harmless villagers.
    — WSJ, 14 Feb. 2019
  • Then, 24 hours later, toothpaste decorates the basin; crumbs crunch underfoot; and grease splatters besmirch the stove.
    — Janet Sheridan, The Denver Post, 13 June 2017
  • Anyone who besmirches his sanctity is a heathen, a liar or—even worse—a Democrat.
    — Michael Harriot, The Root, 12 Feb. 2018
  • The Root would never stoop so low as to besmirch the upstanding character of a great American citizen like Joe Arpaio.
    — Michael Harriot, The Root, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Tomorrow there will be time enough for their credit to be besmirched by late payments or negative rental history.
    — Shannon Rooney, Philly.com, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Australians pride themselves on their natural surroundings, and as, week after week, people emerge from a swim besmirched with ash or struggling to breathe, the sense of outrage and terror has grown.
    — Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books, 16 Jan. 2020
  • Of course, Fox News couldn't resist a dig at their rival network and its besmirched former personality.
    — Kaitlin Menza, Esquire, 1 Jan. 2018
  • Shortly after Seberg’s body was found, the FBI announced that agents had attempted to besmirch her reputation in 1970.
    — Susan Kingwriter, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Neville and his collaborators have done a thorough dig through Rogers’s life and work, drawn from a lifetime of archives right through his death in 2003, but there are no besmirching revelations to be found here.
    — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 June 2018
  • Is there any beloved icon from childhood that filmmakers will not bloodily besmirch by turning into horror movies?
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 8 Sep. 2023
  • But the four-ish minutes of TV was mesmerizing, a strange piercing of the Bravo forcefield that usually manages to keep the goings-on of the real world separate from besmirching the antics of its cast.
    — Bridget Read, Vogue, 17 Apr. 2019
  • For example, a few nitrogen atoms among a diamond’s millions of carbon atoms can make the rock appear yellow or brown, while blue diamonds have been besmirched with a few boron atoms.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 23 Mar. 2018
  • The elegant granite structure, whose architectural character Trump had promised to preserve, was now besmirched by a gaudy, faux-gold sign bearing his name.
    — Nick Tabor, Daily Intelligencer, 1 Apr. 2018
  • Eliade’s widow, in particular, loathed anyone who besmirched even the shadow of her husband’s legacy.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 15 Nov. 2023
  • These hardy souls, largely indifferent to political and economic turbulence, were the mainstay of the tourist economy during the civil war that besmirched the lives of an entire generation from the 1980s on.
    — Chandrahas Choudhury, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'besmirch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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