smear, verb transitive

Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Translation of Afrikaans smeer to smear, plaster, from Dutch smeren to grease, lubricate.
historical
To spread or treat (floors or walls) with any of several mixtures containing cow dung. See also mis sense 2.
1816 J. Mackrill Diary. 129To clean the House they besmear the floor with cow dung, so that literally to make a house in Africa clean, you have only to cover it with manure.
1835 W.B. Boyce in A. Steedman Wanderings II. 276Sent for in great haste to her husband’s kraal, and had gone immediately..though engaged at the time in smearing Mrs. Painton’s house.
1839 W.C. Harris Wild Sports 143The space was smeared with a mixture of mud and cow-dung, resembling that used in all parts of India for similar purposes.
1849 J.D. Lewins Diary. 15 Sept.Had the hall & bedroom smeared today & everything cleaned up.
1900 E.E.K. Lowndes Every-Day Life 96You could never guess what a South African carpet is!..The Kaffir girl goes out with a pail or tin, and fills it with the dried cow-dung which is lying plentifully about. This she lays in a heap on the floor, pours water over it, and mixes it up with her hands till it is like thick batter. Then she spreads or ‘smears’ it over the floor by a peculiar scraping of the mass along with the side of the hand.
1911 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Kimberley 399When the size of Buckingham Palace was explained to a gray-beard, he..expressed his undying opinion that it must take a day at least to smear the floors with cow-dung.
1933 W.H.S. Bell Bygone Days 127The floor..had been freshly smeared with cow-dung mixed with blood.
1949 L. Hunter Afr. Dawn 7A third was mixing cow dung and water to the right consistency for smearing the floors of the huts.
1956 U. Long Jrnls of Elizabeth Lees Price 516They..will sleep in the wagons while the house is aired, cleaned and ‘smeared’.
1976 G. & G. Fagan in Optima Vol.26 No.2, 75Clay floors, smeared with dung once a week, were common at the Cape till the end of the 19th century.
1977 F.G. Butler Karoo Morning 38Dan..was sure that all his guests would sleep comfortably enough on the mis-vloer, which had been smeared with cow-dung the day before ‘to fix the fleas’.
To spread or treat (floors or walls) with any of several mixtures containing cow dung.
Derivatives:
Hence smeared  participial adjective, smearing  verbal noun.
1855 J.W. Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal 97There was no time for the usual smearing of the floor with cowdung, which is a great specific against vermin.
1870 R. Ridgill in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 22No man could be more ignorant of the way in which inspanning, outspanning, smearing, and other strange operations would have to be performed.
1883 E.L. Price Letter. 25 JuneWhen we go home, wh. will be the day after tomorrow perhaps, we shall have a great house-cleaning — smearing and airing — for it needs all.
1912 W. Westrup Land of To-Morrow 101The floor was of the usual smeared earth.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 20Smearing was repeated as often as was necessary, and was usually carried out in large swirling traditional patterns.
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smeared
smearing

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historical
smasher, nounn.smeerlap, nounn.
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