smudging

smudging

1. present participle and gerund of smudge

smudging (plural smudgings)

1. The act of something being smudged.
2. A stain or smear left by something being smudged.
   • 2004, Mark Thompson, Leather Folk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, page 88:

     Besides, the body paint would probably be visible on the sheets as dark smudgings, since the films were merely in black and white.

3. (paganism) Suffumigation.
   • 2002, Raven Kaldera, Tannin Schwartzstein, The Urban Primitive: Paganism in the Concrete Jungle, page 36:

     One of the most common forms of purification is done with smoke, using some kind of smoking or smudging.