As verbs the difference between debase and deface
is that
debase is to lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade while
deface is to damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
debase English
Verb
(debas)
To lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade.
(archaic) To lower in position or rank.[Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.]
To lower the value of (a currency) by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins.
Synonyms
* adulterate, degrade, demean
Derived terms
* debased
* debasedness
* debasement
* debaser
* undebased
References
Anagrams
*
|
deface English
Verb
( defac)
To damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
* 1869:
- That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.
To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value.
- He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.
* 1776:
- 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.
(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
See also
* efface
|