Dictionary

smearily en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˈsmɪɹɪli/ (General-American)
• /ˈsmɪəɹɪli/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From smeary + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a smeary fashion.
   • Here was the pretty Chinese table whose top had been greased smearily by the flat feet of Ariffin doing his little dance. 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 253:
   • Although her lower lip was thin and she used eyebrow pencil a bit smearily, she had a way with clothes. 1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, published 1968, pages 121–122:
   • Their feeble pamphlets, their smearily printed newspaper, seemed futile against the enormous blare of Corpo propaganda. 1935, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 29, in It Can’t Happen Here, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran:

Forms