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
"I know that all rightminded Mancunians will be saddened that anyone would use this horrific, offensive language and deface this mural in the Gay Village. It is totally unacceptable," he added.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2024
If we build it, they will deface it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
One neighbor trained his dog to deface Patterson’s property.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Like the art it defaces, protest must evolve to stay relevant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2024
“I consider it very serious, unworthy and a sign of great incivility when a tourist defaces one of the most famous places in the world,” he said on Twitter.
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
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
But it serves not to know such a person, who perpetually defaces the high by such strange mingling with the low.
From Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Volume I by Margaret Fuller
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
In County Tyrone, there is a Prince Andrew Crescent in Moygashel - the sign for which has been defaced in the past.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025
But his tombstone was defaced on Thursday morning, local authorities said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 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
San Francisco police have arrested a man accused of defacing the famed Pink Triangle, a symbol of LGBTQ+ rights that is installed annually during Pride Month on top of the city’s landmark Twin Peaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
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
Asked about his evolution, Maupal said he never considered himself a “rebel artist,” or the type of graffiti artist who remains anonymous because his artwork is, legally speaking, defacing a public space.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 1, 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.
