mar
[mahr]
- to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil: That billboard mars the view. The holiday was marred by bad weather.
- to disfigure, deface, or scar: The scratch marred the table.
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Origin of mar
before 900; Middle English merren, Old English merran to hinder, waste; cognate with Old Saxon merrian, Old High German merren to hinder, Old Norse merja to bruise, Gothic marzjan to offend
Synonyms
See more synonyms for mar on Thesaurus.com1, 2. flaw, injure; blot. Mar, deface, disfigure, deform agree in applying to some form of injury. Mar is general, but usually refers to an external or surface injury, if it is a physical one: The tabletop was marred by dents and scratches. Deface refers to a surface injury that may be temporary or easily repaired: a tablecloth defaced by penciled notations. Disfigure applies to external injury of a more permanent and serious kind: A birthmark disfigured one side of his face. Deform suggests that something has been distorted or internally injured so severely as to change its normal form or qualities, or else that some fault has interfered with its proper development: deformed by an accident that had crippled him; to deform feet by binding them.
Antonyms
1, 2. enhance, adorn.
mar.
Mar.
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M.A.R.
- Master of Arts in Religion.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for mar
Contemporary Examples
A steel bracelet on my wrists reads CPL BRIAN L. CHEVALIER - 14 MAR 2007 – DIYALA.
Pujol was offering a choice of tasting menus that evening: Mar (Surf) or Tierra (Turf).
Decor426 Mar 8, 2008 I am in the same position as both of you.
Historical Examples
Yet, these afflictions were not the worst injuries to mar the girl convict's life.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
Now is the time for a determined stand; now can we make or mar ourselves.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
The name is your own to make or to mar, and you ought to be proud to hand it down.
Hetty's Strange HistoryAnonymous
"Mar—" began Mandy Calline, looking at her mother appealingly.
Southern Lights and ShadowsVarious
Among them was one which had been out in the campaigns of 1689 (Dundee's), 1715 (Mar's), and in 1745-6.
mar
- (tr) to cause harm to; spoil or impair
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- a disfiguring mark; blemish
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Word Origin
Old English merran; compare Old Saxon merrian to hinder, Old Norse merja to bruise
Mar
- March
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for mar
v.
Old English merran (Anglian), mierran (West Saxon) "to waste, spoil," from Proto-Germanic *marzjan (cf. Old Frisian meria, Old High German marren "to hinder, obstruct," Gothic marzjan "to hinder, offend"), from PIE root *mers- "to trouble, confuse" (cf. Sanskrit mrsyate "forgets, neglects," Lithuanian mirszati "to forget"). Related: Marred; marring.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper