different between deface vs extirpate

English

Etymology

From Middle English defacen, from Old French defacier, desfacier (“to mutilate, destroy, disfigure”), from des- (“away from”) (see dis-) + Vulgar Latin *facia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fe?s/, /di??fe?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Verb

deface (third-person singular simple present defaces, present participle defacing, simple past and past participle defaced)

1. To damage or vandalize something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
   • 1869: George Eliot, The Legend of Jubal

     That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.

2. To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value of.

   He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.

   • 1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

     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.

3. (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

Translations

See also

• efface

English

Etymology

From Latin exstirp? (“uproot”), from ex- (“out of”) +? stirps (“the lower part of the trunk of a tree, including the roots; the stem, stalk”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kst?pe?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kst?pe?t/
• Hyphenation: ex?tir?pate

Verb

extirpate (third-person singular simple present extirpates, present participle extirpating, simple past and past participle extirpated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To clear an area of roots and stumps.
2. (transitive) To pull up by the roots; uproot.

   Synonyms: uproot, eradicate, extricate, deracinate

3. (transitive) To destroy completely; to annihilate.

   Synonyms: annihilate, destroy, eradicate, exterminate; see also Thesaurus:destroy

4. (transitive) To surgically remove.

   Synonym: excise

Related terms

• extirp
• extirpation
• extirpative
• extirpator

Translations

Further reading

• extirpate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• extirpate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Latin

Verb

extirp?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of extirp?