defacement

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English

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Etymology

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From deface +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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defacement (countable and uncountable, plural defacements)

  1. An act of defacing; an instance of visibly marring or disfiguring something.
    Some consider the defacement of the Sphinx to be the most egregious crime of Napolean's campaigns.
  2. An act of voiding or devaluing; nullification of the face value.
    The soldiers found a variety of creative uses for their payment scrip after its defacement to scrap paper; some used it as toilet paper.
  3. (heraldry, vexillology) A symbol added to a flag or coat of arms to change it or make it different from another.

Usage notes

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  • Defacement generally has negative valence (that is, it is a bad thing), except in heraldry, where it is a neutral term.

Synonyms

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Translations

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