Mutilate vs Deface - What's the difference?
mutilate | deface | Related terms |
To physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb.
To destroy beyond recognition.
(figuratively) To render imperfect or defective.
(obsolete) Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.
(zoology) Having fin-like appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean does.
(Webster 1913)
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.
Mutilate is a related term of deface.
As verbs the difference between mutilate and deface
is that mutilate is to physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb while deface is to damage something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.As an adjective mutilate
is (obsolete) deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.mutilate
English
Verb
(en-verb)Synonyms
* maim * mangleDerived terms
* mutilation * mutilative * mutilatorSee also
* amputate, amputation * castrate, castration * circumcise, circumcisionAdjective
(-)- (Sir Thomas Browne)
Alternative forms
* (abbreviation)Anagrams
* ----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.
