different between vandalize vs deface

English

Alternative forms

• vandalise (chiefly British)

Etymology

vandal +? -ize

Verb

vandalize (third-person singular simple present vandalizes, present participle vandalizing, simple past and past participle vandalized)

1. US, Canada, and Oxford British English standard spelling of vandalise.

Derived terms

• vandalisation, vandalization

Related terms

• vandal
• vandalism

Translations

Portuguese

Verb

vandalize

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of vandalizar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of vandalizar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of vandalizar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of vandalizar

English

Etymology

From Middle English defacen, from Old French defacier, desfacier (“to mutilate, destroy, disfigure”), from des- (“away from”) (see dis-) + Vulgar Latin *facia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fe?s/, /di??fe?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Verb

deface (third-person singular simple present defaces, present participle defacing, simple past and past participle defaced)

1. To damage or vandalize something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
   • 1869: George Eliot, The Legend of Jubal

     That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.

2. To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value of.

   He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.

   • 1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

     One-and-twenty worn and defaced shillings, however, were considered as equivalent to a guinea, which perhaps, indeed, was worn and defaced too, but seldom so much so.

3. (heraldry, flags) To alter a coat of arms or a flag by adding an element to it.

   You get the Finnish state flag by defacing the national flag with the state coat of arms placed in the middle of the cross.

Synonyms

• (damage in a conspicuous way): disfigure, mar, obliterate, scar, vandalize
• (degrade the face value): cancel, devalue, nullify, void

Derived terms

• defacement

Translations

See also

• efface