deface

/dɪˈfeɪs/

Other forms: defaced; defacing; defaces

If you deface something, you've blemished or disfigured it in some way. For example, graffiti can deface a statue.

To deface something means to damage it or just mess up its appearance. And sometimes it’s both: Throwing a cup of coffee on a valuable painting ruins the face of the painting, so we say it's been defaced. Drawing a mustache on a painting is another way to deface it. What did the Mona Lisa say to the museum visitor holding a marker? “Don’t mess up deface!”

Definitions of deface

1. verb

   mar or spoil the appearance of
   “scars defaced her cheeks”

   synonyms: blemish, disfigure

   types:

   mangle, maul

   injure badly by beating

   mark, pit, pock, scar

   mark with a scar

   pockmark

   mark with or as if with pockmarks

   cicatrise, cicatrize

   form a scar, after an injury

   type of:

   deflower, impair, mar, spoil, vitiate

   make imperfect