1.
[syn: deface, disfigure, blemish]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Deface \De*face"\ (d[-e]*f[=a]s"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Defaced
(d[-e]*f[=a]st"); p. pr. & vb. n. Defacing.] [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.
[1913 Webster]
So by false learning is good sense defaced. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
2. [Cf. F. d['e]faire.] To destroy; to make null. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
[Profane scoffing] doth . . . deface the reverence
of religion. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
For all his power was utterly defaste [defaced].
--Spenser.
Syn: See Efface.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
deface
v 1: mar or spoil the appearance of; "scars defaced her cheeks";
"The vandals disfigured the statue" [syn: deface,
disfigure, blemish]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
44 Moby Thesaurus words for "deface":
batter, blemish, blot, check, cicatrize, contort, crack, craze,
damage, deform, demolish, destroy, dilapidate, disfigure,
disproportion, distort, dysphemize, flaw, harm, impair, injure,
kink, look a fright, look a mess, look bad, look like hell,
look something terrible, mangle, mar, misshape, mutilate, offend,
offend the eye, ruin, scab, scar, scarify, split, spoil, truncate,
twist, uglify, warp, wreck