n. Fat; grease; ointment.n. A spot, blotch, or stain made by, or as if by, some unctuous substanee rubbed upon a surface.n. In sugar manufacturing, the technical term for fermentation.n. In pottery, a mixture of glazing materials in water, used for coating articles before they are placed in the saggars of the glazing-furnace.To overspread with ointment; anoint.To overspread thickly, irregularly, or in blotches with anything unctuous, viscous, or adhesive; besmear; daub.To overspread too thickly, especially to the violation of good taste; paint, or otherwise adorn with something applied to a surface, in a way that is overdone or tawdry.To soil; contaminate; pollute.Synonyms To bedaub, begrime.To tarnish, sully.n. The soft, semi-fluid mud of calcium sulphate left in the generators when whiting and sulphuric acid were used to produce carbon-dioxid gas in the manufacture of aërated waters.n. In bacteriology, a preparation of bacteria for microscopical examination made by smearing the organisms upon a slide or cover-glass. Also called spread. See culture.To give a gloss to (pottery or stoneware) without glazing, as by putting a volatile flux or glazing preparation in the kiln or in the saggar with the ware. See smearglaze and smearing.