What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Defames vs Defaces - What's the difference?

defames | defaces |

As verbs the difference between defames and defaces

is that defames is (defame) while defaces is (deface).

defames

English

Verb

(head)
  • (defame)

  • defame

    English

    Verb

    (defam)
  • To harm or diminish the reputation of.
  • to defame somebody
  • To render infamous; to bring into disrepute.
  • * Dryden
  • My guilt thy growing virtues did defame ; / My blackness blotted thy unblemish'd name.
  • To publish a libel about.
  • (archaic) To charge; to accuse.
  • * Rebecca is defamed of sorcery practised on the person of a noble knight.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    defaces

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (deface)

  • 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