Schmears

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A thick layer of soft food such as cream cheese spread on bread ; a bribe or illicit payment given to win favor ; the entire lot or whole set of something ; to spread a soft substance thickly over a surface
2. Soft, creamy food spread thickly onto a slice of bread ; money or gifts offered secretly to influence someone ; everything included, the whole package or complete collection ; to coat a surface generously with a soft paste
3. Portions of spreadable food like cheese applied to bakery items ; under-the-table payments meant to sway an official's decision ; the full set of items, the whole bundle together ; to apply a soft mixture heavily across something

Etymology: "Schmears" is the plural of "schmear," a noun, and the verb form is the third-person singular of the same word. Its root is the Yiddish "shmir," meaning "smear" or "spread," which is cognate with the German "schmieren." English speakers also know the word from "smear," which is a doublet: both forms descend from the same ancestor, but one came into English through Germanic speech and the other through Yiddish. The more surprising twist is the sense of "bribe." In Yiddish, "shmirn" meant both "to smear" and "to bribe," and German "schmieren" carries the same double meaning. The logic is that a payment greases the wheels of a deal, lubricating an interaction that would otherwise stall. A bribe is, in a sense, a smear of oil on a rusty mechanism.

Synonyms: smear, spread, daub, coating