DEFACE

deface, disfigure, blemish

(verb) mar or spoil the appearance of; “scars defaced her cheeks”; “The vandals disfigured the statue”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

deface (third-person singular simple present defaces, present participle defacing, simple past and past participle defaced)

To damage or vandalize something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.

To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value of.

(heraldry, flags) To alter a coat of arms or a flag by adding an element to it.

Synonyms

• (damage in a conspicuous way): disfigure, mar, obliterate, scar, vandalize

• (degrade the face value): cancel, devalue, nullify, void

Source: Wiktionary


De*face", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Defaced; p. pr. & vb. n. Defacing.] Etym: [OE. defacen to disfigure, efface, OF. desfacier; L. dis- + facies face. See Face, and cf. Efface.]

1. To destroy or mar the face or external appearance of; to disfigure; to injure, spoil, or mar, by effacing or obliterating important features or portions of; as, to deface a monument; to deface an edifice; to deface writing; to deface a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." Emerson. So by false learning is good sense defaced. Pope.

2. Etym: [Cf. F. défaire.]

Definition: To destroy; to make null. [Obs.] [Profane scoffing] doth . . . deface the reverence of religion. Bacon. For all his power was utterly defaste [defaced]. Spenser.

Syn.

– See Efface.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 March 2025

IMMOBILIZATION

(noun) fixation (as by a plaster cast) of a body part in order to promote proper healing; “immobilization of the injured knee was necessary”


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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