deface

deface, disfigure mean to mar the appearance of a thing.

Deface usually suggests a marring of the face or external appearance of something; it frequently implies the effacement, obliteration, or removal of some part or detail

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earth has yet a little gilding left, not quite rubbed off, dishonored, and defaced— Hazlitt

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a door defaced by innumerable incised inscriptions— Shaw

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bad poets deface what they take [from others], and good poets make it into something better— T. S. Eliot

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Disfigure, as applied to a surface, implies deeper or more permanent injury than deface; as applied to figure or conformation, it frequently suggests such impairing of beauty or attractiveness as results from other than structural injury

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a book disfigured by many serious faults

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the smallpox . . . fell foul of poor little Oliver's face . . . and left him scarred and disfigured for his life— Thackeray

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where trees, disfigured by no gaudy lanterns, offered the refreshment of their darkness and serenity— Galsworthy

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in the midst of the political investigations which disfigure our time— Sat. Review

}

Analogous words: *injure, damage, mar: *deform, distort, contort: mutilate, batter, mangle (see MAIM)