Link Centre Dictionary

schmear

UK/ʃmɪə(ɹ)/ uncommon slang

noun

1.

(Yiddish) a batch of things that go together

  • “he bought the whole schmeer”
Synonyms

Origin

Borrowed from Yiddish שמיר (shmir, “smear, spread”); compare German schmieren. Doublet of smear, smearcase. By surface analysis, schm- + smear. The sense “bribe” is from Yiddish שמירן (shmirn, “to smear, to bribe”), senses found also in German schmieren. The implication is that a bribe helps “lubricate” an interaction.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.