efface

American  

[ih-feys] / ɪˈfeɪs /

verb (used with object)

effaces, present (3rd person singular) effaced, past participle, past effacing present participle

1. to wipe out; do away with; expunge.

   to efface one's unhappy memories.

2. to rub out, erase, or obliterate (outlines, traces, inscriptions, etc.).

3. to make (oneself ) inconspicuous; withdraw (oneself ) modestly or shyly.

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efface British  

/ ɪˈfeɪs /

verb

1. to obliterate or make dim

   to efface a memory

2. to make (oneself) inconspicuous or humble through modesty, cowardice, or obsequiousness

3. to rub out (a line, drawing, etc); erase

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• effacement
  noun
• effacer
  noun
• effaceable
  adjective
• uneffaceable
  adjective
• uneffaced
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• effacing
  present
• effaced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• efface
  simple
• effaces
  simple
• have effaced
  perfect
• has effaced
  perfect
• am effacing
  progressive
• are effacing
  progressive
• is effacing
  progressive
• have been effacing
  perfect progressive
• has been effacing
  perfect progressive

Past

• effaced
  simple
• had effaced
  perfect
• was effacing
  progressive
• were effacing
  progressive
• had been effacing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will efface
  simple
• will have effaced
  perfect
• will be effacing
  progressive
• will have been effacing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of efface

From the Middle French word effacer, dating back to 1480–90; see ef-, face

Explanation

If something is erased or rubbed out, it has been effaced. Teachers get annoyed to find that someone has effaced the blackboard — even the part clearly marked, "Do Not Erase!" You can also efface things that are not physical — like effacing feelings, impressions, or memories. When you efface a memory, you wipe it out as well. Some people believe that their good deeds are able to efface their past wrongs. They'll have to rely on others' opinions to see how well that works.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

efface effaces effaced effacing

"You may have the power to bring down the government. But you cannot efface reality," he said.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025

It’s exceedingly unlikely that Leo had anything to do with her murder, but the show doesn’t efface her tragedy, even as it reckons with the gravity of Leo’s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025

He has a formal, shy, sincere manner, polite and cautious, as if to efface his size and menace.

From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023

The wind that exposed the ancient buildings now promises to efface them altogether in a short time.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 3, 2019

Without regrets she honored the obligation she felt to him and was happy to efface herself.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

Most essentially, “Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through,” not unlike Fleischmann’s first book “Syzygy, Beauty,” effaces lines of genre as a strategy to efface, or disrupt, lines of self and gender.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2019

Indeed, each film effaces the collective aspects of the assassination research by presenting the historiographic challenges of the period as essentially the work of one man.

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2017

It’s an enormous story, one that, in the telling, nearly effaces Wilkerson’s presence onstage.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 8, 2017

Abstraction effaces the sore toes and false starts and noisy crowds of a particular place and date.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2012

Another red line which effaces trouble is patience.

From How to be Happy Though Married Being a Handbook to Marriage by Hardy, Edward John

Such weird scenes inside this once-mysterious world have been totally effaced, now that every musician can curate his own image on social media.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2025

And while Fargeat is not very subtle showing Elisabeth literally being effaced from a billboard, illustrating this very point, the emotional toll is palpable.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024

But that timing dates back to when broadcast television dominated — both in viewership and Emmys contenders — in a way that has been effaced by cable television and streaming services.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2023

The tower was locked and the mural effaced.

From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2022

João de Barros was able to claim in 1555 that Hercules’ pillars, ‘which he set up at our very doorstep, as it were,...have been effaced from human memory and thrust into silence and oblivion’.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

These animals, the creation of inspired puppet designer Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, are fluidly deployed by a team of graceful puppeteers, who preserve the essential dignity of these creatures without effacing their ferocity.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025

And thus, too, began his lifelong strategy of effacing himself from his work.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2021

Classical realism is sometimes accused of effacing its own literary labor; the cost of Tokarczuk’s flâneurial freedom is that it effaces the labor of travel.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 24, 2018

Apart from all this, maybe the most potent force effacing gay culture is an understandable, if still covert, impulse to jettison the trauma of the queer legacy.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2018

Then I saw a shadow flit across her face, and she drew back against the wall, effacing herself, as a step sounded outside and Maxim came into the room.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier