Deface vs Defame - What's the difference?
deface | defame |
To damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
* 1869:
To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value.
* 1776:
(heraldry, flags) To alter a coat of arms or a flag by adding an element to it.
To harm or diminish the reputation of.
To render infamous; to bring into disrepute.
* Dryden
To publish a libel about.
(archaic) To charge; to accuse.
* Rebecca is defamed of sorcery practised on the person of a noble knight.
As verbs the difference between deface and defame
is that deface is to damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner while defame is to harm or diminish the reputation of.deface
English
Verb
(defac)- That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.
- He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.
- 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.
- 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, voidDerived terms
* defacementSee also
* effacedefame
English
Verb
(defam)- to defame somebody
- My guilt thy growing virtues did defame ; / My blackness blotted thy unblemish'd name.