Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. something showy, ostentatious.

1922

S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 21: I rather guess our new necktie is some smear!

2. (orig. US) a slanderous or defamatory remark; an attempt to defame by slander.

1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 59: If you get in another smear, you’ll be taking me with you.
1963		K. Amis letter 26 Aug. in Leader (2000) 640: When Hickey finally did his stuff it was a weedy little smear.
1966		R.E. Alter Carny Kill (1993) 62: I ain’t about to become a patsy for this smear.
1987		P. Johnson History of Jews 455: It was the commonest of all anti-Semitic smears that Jews ‘worked together’ behind the scenes.
1999		Indep. 22 July 3: I am not going to allow people to be driven from positions in the party by smear and innuendo.
2012		Independent (London) 19 Oct. 🌐 Maybe the Taliban smear is a joke.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 246: This is a smear case. She has robbed nobody. I can see through a stone wall.
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 28: For half a year I’d been high on their smear list.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 64: I smelled Sm,ear Job. Let’s foto-fuck this creep.