▪ I. smutch, n.
(smʌtʃ)
Also 6 smutche, 7 smuch.
[Of uncertain origin; related in some way to smudge, which is recorded earlier as a vb. though much later as a n. More recent forms are smooch n.1 and smouch n.4]
1. A black or dirty mark; a stain; a smudge.
| 1530 Palsgr. 272/1 Smutche on ones face, barboyllement. 1637 Dow Answ. H. Burton 125 Though it bee not needfull to wipe off every smutch. 1652 Crashaw Wks. (1904) 360 Those durty smutches, w{supc}{suph} their faire fronts wore. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 608 The palm is hardly clean—But here and there an ugly smutch appears. 1844 Lowell Hunger & Cold v, He recks not a bloody smutch On his gold. 1879 G. Macdonald P. Faber II. xiii. 256 He in whose eyes even a smutch on her face would have lowered a woman. |
b. fig. A moral stain.
| 1648 Earl Westmoreland Otia Sacra (1879) 15 Our Souls, which before did lye Defil'd through th' smutch of Sin. 1688 Bunyan Solomon's Temple xxxiii, Hence the word of God is compared to a glass,..by which we see..our smutches. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 8 Nov. 5/1 The work of cleansing the city from the smutch of Croker and his fellow-ruffians. |
c. A slight mark or indication; semblance; also, a slight or light touch.
| 1776 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 98 Without a shadow, a relish, a smutch, a tinge,..of anger. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh v. 506, I never envied Graham his breadth of style, Which gives you, with a random smutch or two,..Such delicate perspectives of full life. |
2. Soot, smut, grime, dirt.
| 1790 Cowper Odyss. xviii. 34 Collied with chimney smutch! 1790 ― Iliad xviii. 513 His arms and brawny neck Purified, and his shaggy breast from smutch. 1890 R. Bridges Shorter Poems iii. 13 The soil, the smutch the toil and ache and wear. |
3. attrib., as smutch box, smutch pan.
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 145/1 Stainshall, of some called a Smuch Box; it is a Tin with a bottom and three sides, in which Oil Pencils are put with their points in Oil to keep them from drying. c 1896 Rowney's Price List 20 Oil Slant and Smutch Pan. |
▪ II. smutch, v.
(smʌtʃ)
[See prec. and cf. smooch v.1]
trans. To blacken, make dirty, smut, smudge. Also in fig. context.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 121 Why that's my Bawcock: what? has't smutch'd thy Nose? 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. ii. 275 It would not do well to have the Collier and Fuller live together; what one cleanseth, the other will crock and smutch. 1690 C. Ness Hist. O. & N. Test. i. 20 The brightest ivory, if smutched with the fire, contracteth a filthy blackness. 1790 Cowper Odyss. xiii. 536 A cloak And kirtle..foul And smutch'd with smoke. 1818 Keats Endym. ii. 90 As though afraid to smutch Even with mealy gold the waters clear. 1850 Browning Christmas Eve xiv, Under the foot they could not smutch, Lay all the fleshly and the bestial. 1876 Holland Seven Oaks xv. 210 Puppies that might..fawn before her, but might not smutch her robes with their dirty feet. |
b. fig. To stain, sully, besmirch, etc., morally or otherwise.
| 1640 Yorke Union Hon. To Rdr., Some, who must quarrell..with my Booke..and smutch it with a scorne of my Profession. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 134 The Fumes..from his Spleen..have..smutched and sullied his Brain. 1858 Morris Old Love 158 This love is not so hard to smutch. 1865 J. Skelton Campaigner at Home ix. 264 The passion is always pure. It is never smutched by sensuality. |
Hence ˈsmutching vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1611 Cotgr., Souillement, a..slurrying, durtying, smutching. 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide i. 3 He is but your scullion to make your integrity shine the brighter by all these reproachfull smutchings. 1871 B. Taylor Faust iii. (1875) II. 182 The black blood's horrible and smutching stains. |