blur vs smirch

blur

noun
  • A smear, smudge or blot 

  • Something that appears hazy or indistinct 

verb
  • To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken. 

  • To become indistinct. 

  • To transfer the input focus away from. 

  • To smear, stain or smudge. 

  • To make indistinct or hazy, to obscure or dim. 

adj
  • In a state of doubt or confusion. 

smirch

noun
  • Dirt, or a stain. 

  • A chirp of radiation power from an astronomical body that has a smeared appearance on its plot in the time-frequency plane (usually associated with massive bodies orbiting supermassive black holes) 

  • A stain on somebody's reputation. 

verb
  • To harm the reputation of; to smear or slander. 

  • To dirty; to make dirty. 

How often have the words blur and smirch occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )