TARRED Synonyms: 59 Similar and Opposite Words

tarred

verb

past tense of tar

as in smeared

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tarred

Verb

The restaurant sources its birotes from Duran’s to make the open-face, bean and cheese-smeared breakfast sandwiches popular throughout Mexico.

— Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026
By the end of the debate, about 150 men dressed in Indigenous costumes, their faces smeared with soot, stormed to a nearby wharf and dumped a literal boatload of tea into the water.

— Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 26 June 2026

Definition of smeared

Verb

Sacramento argued in court that most of her items were soiled and therefore garbage.

— Ariane Lange, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026
The establishment remained closed after a reinspection, during which health inspectors observed unresolved violations including food stored at unsafe temperatures, multiple flies in the kitchen, soiled flooring under cooking equipment among others.

— Shambhavi Rimal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 June 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

But stars aren’t the only things that fail to show up when the sky is polluted with light; fireflies, those flashing, nostalgic symbols of summer, often skip the party too.

— Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 1 July 2026
Midland, Texas, is still cleaning up groundwater polluted by a leaking injection well more than two decades ago.

— Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 30 June 2026

Definition of polluted

Verb

Also in 2018, Prince Mohammed's reputation was tarnished by the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

— ABC News, ABC News, 8 July 2026
In that light, the NCAA has insisted that the more college sports seem like pro sports, with athletes who want to stick around well into their 20s, the game’s marketability and TV ratings could be tarnished.

— Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 7 July 2026

Definition of tarnished

Verb

Large sections of the ceiling were destroyed, blackened and charred, while the floor and tables below, some still with beer bottles on them, were blanketed in ash and debris.

— ABC News, ABC News, 13 July 2026
Pictures shared on social media after the fire was extinguished showed chairs and tables inside the pub completely charred and blackened, with parts of the ceiling peeling off.

— Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 12 July 2026

Definition of blackened

Verb

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
The school's statement said the receipt supporting the claim of the fake cigars had the time and date smudged out.

— Ryan Canfield OutKick, FOXNews.com, 12 June 2026

Definition of smudged

Verb

This discovery really tainted the momentum of our relationship.

— Harriette Cole, Mercury News, 13 July 2026
Attorneys for the owners of the landfill, which stopped accepting trash last year, claimed this spring in the litigation that the lawsuits may be tainted by fraud.

— Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 12 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.

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tarns

tarred

tarried

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“Tarred.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tarred. Accessed 15 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of tarred

verb

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