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

The novel derives its memorable title from Laila’s admonition that the narrator efface her idiosyncrasies, the better to morph into a version of her mother.

From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2020

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

From Washington Post ● Oct. 3, 2019

They seemed very small, and they tried to efface themselves in outside neglect, and the wild overgrown front yards tried to hide them from the street.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

But some may feel that the warm welcome Omar receives from the enslaved workers at Owen’s plantation effaces the harsher reality of the character’s circumstance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2022

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

It knows how inexplicable it must seem to its environment, how it must fret its oyster; so it effaces itself as much as possible.

From Atlantic Narratives Modern Short Stories by Ashe, Elizabeth

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

Lurie, an Eastern European immigrant with Muslim roots, was orphaned in New York and had his identity effaced and remade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2019

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

In “Gatz,” the novel’s narrative texture was conveyed through zany approximation — the troupe finding Fitzgerald not by effacing itself but by embracing its eccentric difference.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025

Adolfo became an expert at effacing the most stubborn stains.

From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2023

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