deface
Americanverb (used with object)
-
defaces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
defaced,
past participle, past
-
defacing
present participle
-
to mar the surface or appearance of; disfigure.
to deface a wall by writing on it.
- Synonyms:
- spoil
-
to efface, obliterate, or injure the surface of, as to make illegible or invalid.
to deface a bond.
verb
Synonym Usage
See mar.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
defacesimple
-
defacessimple
-
have defacedperfect
-
has defacedperfect
-
am defacingprogressive
-
are defacingprogressive
-
is defacingprogressive
-
have been defacingperfect progressive
-
has been defacingperfect progressive
Past
-
defacedsimple
-
had defacedperfect
-
was defacingprogressive
-
were defacingprogressive
-
had been defacingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deface
1275–1325; Middle English defacen, from Old French desfacier, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + facier ( face face + -ier infinitive suffix)
Explanation
If you deface something, you've blemished or disfigured it in some way. For example, graffiti can deface a statue. To deface something means to damage it or just mess up its appearance. And sometimes it’s both: Throwing a cup of coffee on a valuable painting ruins the face of the painting, so we say it's been defaced. Drawing a mustache on a painting is another way to deface it. What did the Mona Lisa say to the museum visitor holding a marker? “Don’t mess up deface!”
Vocabulary lists containing deface
Hoot
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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Swing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Despite the dismissal, Burgum vowed that the administration “won’t back down to deranged people who want to destroy, deface, or degrade our monuments.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
"The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool," Burgum posted on X. "We won't back down to deranged people who want to destroy, deface, or degrade our monuments."
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
She’s an aesthete run amok, determined to deface anything that doesn’t live up to her impossible standards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
He even intends to deface the entire White House complex with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, Versailles as reimagined by Tony Soprano.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2025
One neighbor trained his dog to deface Patterson’s property.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
In another video, Sweeney defaces an American Eagle billboard that reads “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” crossing out the word “jeans” and replacing it with “genes.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
The extreme one offered here frequently defaces it.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2024
She then strips and defaces a portrait of her husband.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2018
The twist: Huckins defaces these replicas with cyber-slang text and smartphone icons, painted as neatly as the portraits themselves.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2017
For sleeping sound in death's embraces, On their clay-cold beds they lie, Death, grim death, alas defaces, Youth and pleasure which must die.
From The Battle of Bunkers-Hill by Montrose Jonas Moses
Equipped with super glue and expanding foam, the mystery vigilante has defaced dozens of newly installed parking meters across North Berwick.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
No one entertains the idea that one person’s graffitied tribute to a male gladiator might have been defaced by giving the picture breasts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
But his tombstone was defaced on Thursday morning, local authorities said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
This isn't the first instance of Gandhi's statue being defaced in the UK.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2025
Crude pictograms defaced the far side of the door, along with an abundance of less orderly nicks and scratches.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
Who knew that defacing images of Satan was a popular cultural practice at the time?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
They have all issued public warnings against damaging or defacing banknotes when making these bouquets of cash.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026
But Navarro couldn’t save Julie, and Leah assumes that Danvers is not on her side, even when her stepmother gets her out of trouble for defacing the mining office.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
“There’s laws against defacing and damaging gravesites and anyone that is caught in any act ... will obviously be met with the consequences of being arrested,” a police source said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
It was defacing, it was taking away someone’s face.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
