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Defile vs Deface - What's the difference?

defile | deface |

As verbs the difference between defile and deface

is that defile is to make impure; to make dirty while deface is to damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.

As a noun defile

is a narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains.

defile

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Verb

(defil)
  • to make impure; to make dirty.
  • Synonyms
    * contaminate * pollute
    Antonyms
    * purify

    Etymology 2

    Earlier (defilee), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A narrow way or passage, e.g. between mountains.
  • A single file, such as of soldiers.
  • The act of defilading a fortress, or of raising the exterior works in order to protect the interior.
  • See also
    * glen

    Verb

    (defil)
  • (archaic) To march in a single file.
  • * 1979 , Cormac McCarthy, Suttree , Random House, p.138:
  • They defiled down a gully to the water and bunched and jerked their noses at it and came back.

    Noun

  • march-past
  • Declension

    {{sh-decl-noun , defìl?, defilei , defilèa, defilé? , defileu, defileima , defile, defilee , defileu / defilee, defilei , defileu, defileima , defileom, defileima }}

    References

    *

    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