blemishing

verb

present participle of blemish
1
as in marring
to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable a single indiscretion blemished the rabbi's reputation for years

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in damaging
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of a scratch blemished the finish on the car

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for blemishing
  1. marring
  2. damaging
  3. tainting
  4. injuring
  5. spoiling
  6. crippling
  7. staining
  8. compromising
Verb
  • The Trib is withholding Nick’s full name to avoid marring his reputation in the eyes of future employers or others who might run a search on him.
    — Kate Payne, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The latter track takes overt inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, as Jepsen beckons her love to engage in life’s vices with her, like marring bedsheets with fruit stains and dashing nude through the garden.
    — Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of marring
Verb
  • This includes significant flooding of coastal beaches, walkways and roads, and potentially damaging some structures.
    — CA Weather Bot, Sacbee.com, 12 Nov. 2026
  • Elon Musk hung on to power after badly damaging Tesla’s reputation during his stint in politics.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 12 Nov. 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • Several homeowners near Meta’s massive Newton County data center have filed a lawsuit accusing the tech company and others of tainting their water and destroying their rural way of life.
    — Zachary Hansen, AJC.com, 1 Sep. 2026
  • For all intents and purposes, an unknown actor can wade unburdened into the depths of Bond, able to transform without a viewer’s prior expectation tainting the image of 007.
    — Emily Maskell, IndieWire, 10 July 2026
Definition of tainting
Verb
  • In Paris, rioters targeted police with Molotov cocktails at the end of Saturday’s march on the city’s eastern edge, injuring three officers and setting a car ablaze, police said.
    — Angela Charlton, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Several days later, a commuter train near Barcelona derailed, killing the driver and injuring dozens of other people.
    — Hernan Muñoz, NBC news, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of injuring
Verb
  • London — Cyberattacks on grocery store refrigeration systems across Europe sent temperatures soaring on Monday, spoiling food and causing significant financial losses in the second such incident in less than a month.
    — Inaya Folarin Iman, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images European supermarkets have become the center of another cyberattack, with hackers remotely heating fridges and spoiling food.
    — Sawdah Bhaimiya, CNBC, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • The flip side is that the state suffers crippling deficits when the market tanks, as during the Global Financial Crisis.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026
  • In the days after the ceasefire broke down, the Houthis announced a blockade on Saudi shipping, and launched attacks crippling Saudi Arabia’s oil export infrastructure.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of crippling
Verb
  • Tips To Keep Your Sink Clean Longer Rinse the sink after every use to get rid of food debris that can cause odors, get rid of soap scum, and reduce staining.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 18 Oct. 2026
  • Hydrogen peroxide acts as a mild disinfectant that kills mold and bacteria and is very helpful for light staining.
    — Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 27 Sep. 2026
Definition of staining
Verb
  • The testing represents an important step in assessing whether existing mortar ammunition can be adapted for unmanned delivery without compromising its original design and safety requirements.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Expectations should match the risks involved without compromising independence.
    — Avani Desai, Fortune, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of compromising
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

blemishes
blemishing
blench
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Blemishing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blemishing. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
speech-bubble-untangle
Simplify The Convoluted Expression Quiz A quiz that’s as “uncomplicated as a round de...
See All