1
as in destroys
to deliberately cause the damage or destruction of another's property
the principal vowed to get the punks who defaced the statue in front of the school
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in injures
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of
years of wear had defaced the fine engraving on the coins
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defaces
Verb
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These newly aware companies’ high-speed trading of financial projects destroys the Earth itself, forcing humans to flee to the margins of the solar system.—
Livia Gershon,
JSTOR Daily,
29 Sep. 2025 -
Most of the time, a person’s immune system identifies and destroys these cells.—
Elizabeth Yuko,
Flow Space,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Automobility directly or indirectly causes one in 34 deaths annually, injures more than 100 million people a year, and has killed as many people as the two World Wars combined.—
Henrietta Moore,
Fortune,
16 Sep. 2025
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If a dog that has not been officially declared dangerous severely injures or kills a person when unprovoked, authorities may confiscate the dog, and the dog’s owner is liable for the incident.—
Amanda Rosa,
Miami Herald,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Feinerman explained that dryness in the eyes can cause an inflammatory response that damages the pigment layer of the macula, accelerating eye aging.—
Claire Bugos,
Verywell Health,
25 Sep. 2025
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These instructions help turn off the harmful protein that damages brain cells.—
Doc Louallen,
ABC News,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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If the city demolishes the building, the costs will be assessed to the property owner.—
Frederick Melo,
Twin Cities,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Deadly holiday weekend mars broad crime drop The back-and-forth followed a Labor Day weekend of deadly violence in Chicago worse than in the previous two years, with seven people shot to death, according to preliminary Chicago Police Department reports.—
Andy Rose,
CNN Money,
3 Sep. 2025
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Valuing a project at cost of production rather than value in an arm’s length sale—common in all economic statistics—especially mars Chinese data.—
Bill Conerly,
Forbes.com,
21 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The movie cuts from the assassin pulling a machine gun from his bag to Joe hurling a pot of hot coffee at him, igniting a close-quarters battle that trashes the place.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
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An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
12 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The ball smashes into the floodlights, and Hobbs sets off on his victory trot, in slow motion, with sparks cascading behind him like fireworks.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
18 Sep. 2025
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The trend isn’t one-sided either, as clips have surfaced of brides being the ones to start the frosting fight, like in this TikTok video where a bride smashes a piece of cake on her groom’s face.—
Kimberlee Speakman,
PEOPLE,
11 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Defaces.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defaces. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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