smeary
/ˈsmɪəɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.38 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having a consistency like grease; covered with such a substance.
Example Sentences
- "Pretending to read a smeary newspaper long out of date, which had nothing half so legible in its local news, as the foreign matter of coffee, pickles, fish sauces, gravy, melted butter, and wine, with which it was sprinkled all over, as if it had taken the measles in a highly irregular form, I sat at my table […]"
- "I voice the weary, smeary ones of earth, The helots of the sea and of the soil."
- "They had Rembrandt on the calendar that year, a rather smeary self-portrait due to imperfectly registered colour plates."
- "The letters were executed clumsily, with a smeary black kindergarten exuberance."
- "[…] stamped again and again in smeary red ink that looked like blood, was one word: CANCEL."
- "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?"
Etymology
From Middle English *smery, *smeri, from Old English smeoruwiġ (“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”), from Proto-West Germanic *smerwig, equivalent to smear + -y.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsmɪəɹi/
- British English: /ˈsmɪəɹi/