▪ I. deface, v.
(dɪˈfeɪs)
Also 4 defaas, 5 defface, defase, difface, 6 dyfface.
[a. obs. F. deface-r, earlier deffacer, orig. desfacier, f. des-, dé- (de- 6) + face face n. Cf. It. sfacciare.]
1. trans. To mar the face, features, or appearance of; to spoil or ruin the figure, form, or beauty of; to disfigure.
to deface coin includes the stamping on a legally current coin of any name or words other than those impressed on it; made illegal by Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 102.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 915 And clepe A-yen þe beute of your face, That ye with salte Teeris so deface. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxvii, But in her rage to the kinge she ran..So diffaced and rewefull of her sight That by her hewe knoweth her no wyht. 1555 Eden Decades 48 The hole woorke..defaced with blottes and interlynynge. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 39 One yron Mole, defaceth the whole peece of Lawne. ? 1661 in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 7 Lucas..cut downe all the trees about the Castle, which utterly defaced the seat. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 10 Oct. (1887) I. 130 There are some few heads of ancient statues; but several of them are defaced by modern additions. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 497 A deed..is..cancelled, by tearing off the seals, or otherwise defacing it. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 160 Fine works of art and curious remains of antiquity, were brutally defaced. |
b. fig. (of things immaterial).
| c 1325 Deo Gratias 70 in E.E.P. (1862) 126 Þi vertues let no fulþe defaas. c 1450 Crt. of Love iii, Minerva, guide me with thy grace, That language rude my matter not deface. 1509 Fisher Fun. Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 290 A noblenes of maners, withouten whiche the noblenes of bloode is moche defaced. 1656 Hobbes Liberty, Necess. & Chance (1841) 286 Those readers whose judgments are not defaced with the abuse of words. 1706 Addison Poems, Rosamond i. iv, How does my constant grief deface The pleasures of this happy place! 1878 P. Bayne Purit. Rev. i. 5 Every religion..will be more or less defaced by error. |
† 2. To destroy, demolish, lay waste. Obs.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxx. 178 The cytie of Maynchester, that sore was defaced with warre of the Danys. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 751 They woulde..race, and clerely deface the walles, toures, and portes of the Castell. 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 148 Now cleane defaste the goodly buildings fayre. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 29 The Portugals erected a fortresse, which their king afterward commanded them to deface. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ii. 47 Croatia..then by lawlesse, and turbulent souldiers, was miserably defaced. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxvi. 12 Hotly the King to deface outer Assyria sped. |
3. To blot out, obliterate, efface (writing, marks).
| 1340 Ayenb. 191 Hi lokede..ine hare testament and hi yzeȝ þe þousend pond defaced of hire write. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxv. 117 When þis monee es waxen alde, and þe prynte þeroff defaced by cause of vsyng. 1438 Caxton Gold. Leg. 333/2 The lyon..defaceth his traces and stappes with his taille whan he fleeth. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1372/1 To deface a letter, which he was then in writing..in cipher. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. iv, To deface the print of a cauldron in the ashes. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 4 In Characters that can never be defaced. 1839 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. vii. 100 The beginning of this letter is irreparably defaced. |
b. fig. To blot out of existence, memory, thought, etc.; to extinguish.
| c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 454 This wyl is in myn herte and ay shal be No lengthe of tyme or deeth may this deface. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 198 (Mätz.) Than comyth a storm and doth his lihte difface. 1570 T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. (1853) 160 Defacing with everlasting forgetfulness the memory of our sins. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. ii, For want of issue they [families] are defaced in an instant. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 25 By false learning is good sense defac'd. 1796 [see defaced]. |
† 4. To destroy the reputation or credit of; to discredit, defame. Obs.
| 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 109/1 To deface that holy worke, to the ende, that they might seme to haue some iust cause to burne it. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Pref. 11 To bryng hym out of credite, to deface hym. 1570 Levins 7/16 To Deface, dehonestare. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 223 Reasons to deface the Dukes merits. 1641 Prynne Antip. p. x, Iohn White..would have defaced Queene Elizabeth gladly, if hee durst, in his Funerall Sermon of Queene Mary, whom he immoderately extolled. |
† 5. To put out of countenance; to outface, abash. Obs.
| 1537 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 143 There stode..Parret..and his face flatt ageynst for to deface me. c 1570 Lady Hungerford to W. Darrell in H. Hall Eliz. Soc. (1887) 253 Seeke oute what possabell may be to deface and disprove those varlettes that soo vily hathe yoused us. |
† 6. To outshine by contrast, cast in the shade.
| c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon xvi. 48 So rich and fair a bud, whose brightness shall deface proud Phœbus flower. 1639 tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman C ij, Women who..put on many diamonds..make them contemplate their jewels.. The luster of the flash they give, defaceth that of their own hue. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 142 The Aurora Borealis ..not to be defaced even by the splendour of the full moon. |
▪ II. † deˈface, n. Obs.
[f. prec.]
Defacement.
| 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lxi. 5 That trewth trewlie might appere without deface. 1563 Sackville Compl. Dk. Buckhm. xix. Wks. (1859) 130 Yet God..At last descries them to your sad deface, You see the examples set before your face. 1601 Chester Love's Mart. (1878) 61 His fathers Coate, his Mothers Countries grace, His honors Badge, his cruell foes deface. c 1611 Chapman Iliad vi. 298 He hath been born, and bred to the deface, By great Olympius, of Troy. |