different between lacerate vs deface

English

Etymology

From Middle English laceraten, from Latin lacer?tus, past participle of lacer?.

Pronunciation

• (verb): IPA^(key): /?læ.s?.ejt/
• (verb): Hyphenation: lac?er?ate
• (adjective): IPA^(key): /?læ.s?.?t/

Verb

lacerate (third-person singular simple present lacerates, present participle lacerating, simple past and past participle lacerated)

1. (transitive) To tear, rip or wound.
2. (transitive) To defeat thoroughly; to thrash.

Translations

Adjective

lacerate (not comparable)

1. (botany) Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.

   The bract at the base is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex.

Italian

Verb

lacerate

1. second-person plural present indicative of lacerare
2. second-person plural imperative of lacerare
3. feminine plural of lacerato

Latin

Participle

lacer?te

1. vocative masculine singular of lacer?tus

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