tarred

verb

past tense of tar
as in smeared

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tarred
  1. smeared
  2. soiled
  3. sullied
  4. polluted
  5. tarnished
  6. blackened
  7. smudged
  8. tainted
Verb
  • Camille can still picture Burke standing over her, fake blood smeared across her dress.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2026
  • There’s rarely anything as straightforward as a kick drum, a hi-hat, or even a bassline here; instead, everything is smeared, all origins occulted in a thicket of echoes and reflections.
    — Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of smeared
Verb
  • The leggings were still wet, heavily soiled, and badly deteriorated, LaHendro testified, making the edge detail too unreliable for comparison.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 24 July 2026
  • Sacramento argued in court that most of her items were soiled and therefore garbage.
    — Ariane Lange, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026
Definition of soiled
Verb
  • Such shenanigans are more or less expected, and certainly haven’t forever sullied the American soccer fan base, at least here at home.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 7 July 2026
  • Soap invited its viewers to take jabs at the genre in a time when the soap opera’s reputation had already been sullied in the American mind.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 May 2026
Definition of sullied
Verb
  • Greenpeace Germany warned that oil has already polluted stretches of coastline and damaged the area's fragile ecosystem.
    — Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 2 Aug. 2026
  • Stretches of coastline and the area’s sensitive marine ecosystem have been polluted and damaged.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 1 Aug. 2026
Definition of polluted
Verb
  • The Pentagon's inadequate communication has tarnished trust and credibility among the American public, Congress and crucial regional allies who are facing Iranian attacks, three former military officials tell Lawrence.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 21 July 2026
  • Jingye Group said in a WeChat statement that the nationalization move tarnished the credibility of the British government, spooked international investors and caused great losses to the company’s operation and British taxpayers’ funds.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026
Definition of tarnished
Verb
  • The old silver and gold shops, their facades blackened by time, were gone.
    — Lina Sergie Attar, Time, 6 Aug. 2026
  • It was blackened, charred, the conductor that had drawn the single precise punch of lightning.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 27 July 2026
Definition of blackened
Verb
  • The color was also gently smudged below her lower lashes, winging ever so faintly upward at the outer corner.
    — Marci Robin, Allure, 20 July 2026
  • Loose waves and smudged eye makeup, sharpened with pink at the inner corners, kept the effect closer to one of her stage looks.
    — Maggie Clancy, Footwear News, 3 July 2026
Definition of smudged
Verb
  • The political violence that tainted the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era clashes with traditional definitions of terrorism, which typically targets a power structure that such violence seeks to upend.
    — Jacob Ware, The Conversation, 31 July 2026
  • More than two dozen California Democrats are confronting the FCC over its rare early review of Disney’s ABC station licenses, calling the process ideologically tainted and aimed at punishing critical media coverage.
    — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2026
Definition of tainted
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

tarns
tarred
tarried
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Tarred.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tarred. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on tarred

Nglish: Translation of tarred for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

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

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Aug. 7

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
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
fridge-magnet-letters
Drop a Letter Quiz August 2026 Drop a letter from a word to make a totally diffe...
See All