defacing 1 of 2

noun

as in vandalism
deliberate damaging or destroying of another's property the neo-Nazis' defacing of the synagogue was condemned by the entire community

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

defacing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of deface
1
as in vandalizing
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

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in marring
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of years of wear had defaced the fine engraving on the coins

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of defacing
Noun
The investigation into the racist defacing of the black professors’ portraits at Harvard Law School in 2015 continues into an eleventh year with no resolution and no suspects. — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 31 Dec. 2025
Verb
Over the weekend, ShinyHunters boasted about hijacking and defacing CLOP’s site on the dark web with an image of a Pokémon. — Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 21 Sep. 2026 Trump, in one of his Truth Social posts, cited laws against defacing monuments as grounds for imprisoning anyone harming the pool. — Nathan Ellgren, Chicago Tribune, 22 June 2026 Two men from Germany were arrested after being accused of defacing a pride bench in Miami Beach with antisemitic symbols on Monday. — Steven Yablonski, CBS News, 19 May 2026 No one in Florida had been charged with criminal mischief for defacing a traffic control device until the August arrests. — Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 24 Apr. 2026 An inflatable effigy depicting Trump defacing the Constitution made its way through the crowd. — Nik Popli, Time, 28 Mar. 2026 This exclusion protects the home warranty company from homeowners who may try to get replacements for appliances or home system components by defacing or damaging them purposefully. — Dan Simms, USA Today, 23 Mar. 2026 Denilson Pires was arrested and charged with carrying a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without an FID card, and defacing a firearm serial number. — Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald, 10 Mar. 2026 Sohail faces federal charges of intentionally defacing or damaging religious real property, which carries a maximum three years behind bars. — John Annese, New York Daily News, 2 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defacing
  1. vandalism
  2. vandalizing
  3. marring
  4. vandalization
  5. destroying
  6. damaging
  7. destruction
  8. demolishing
Noun
  • Harkins is the second person to face federal charges for vandalism at the Tesla location on State Line Road.
    — Nathan Pilling, Kansas City Star, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Pasticceria Italia, a popular Italian bakery, shut down last winter after suffering two ceiling collapses from water leaks in two winters followed by vandalism damage.
    — Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of vandalism
Verb
  • In August, Kuna had at least two incidents of people vandalizing or stealing the license-plate readers, Emily Walker, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told the Statesman Thursday.
    — Idaho Statesman, Idaho Statesman, 20 Sep. 2026
  • That would let prosecutors ask a grand jury to charge Hearn again if new evidence were discovered implicating him in vandalizing the pool.
    — Dan Mangan, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of vandalizing
Verb
  • The latter track takes overt inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, as Jepsen beckons her love to engage in life’s vices with her, like marring bedsheets with fruit stains and dashing nude through the garden.
    — Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026
  • There has been no evidence of widespread fraud marring American elections.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of marring
Noun
  • Riverside has both a community center named for Chavez and a bronze statue — often the target of vandalization — on the Main Street pedestrian mall in the city’s downtown.
    — Ryan Carter, Daily News, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Police said officers from the 116th Precinct had been alerted to the vandalization in the neighborhood and found 11 different police vehicles, both marked and unmarked, with damage.
    — Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 13 Nov. 2025
Definition of vandalization
Verb
  • It was defined in a United Nations Convention, adopted in the wake of the Holocaust, as acts that are committed with the intention of destroying — in whole or in part — a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
    — David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Can the product be restored without destroying what still works?
    — Christopher Kiggins, Forbes.com, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of destroying
Verb
  • David Hearn, the former Olympics canoeist accused of damaging Washington's Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool before prosecutors dropped the case, cannot be recharged, a judge has ruled.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Meanwhile, on the charging case, iFixit struggled to access its components without damaging the external plastic.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of damaging
Noun
  • Sixty-five percent of Gazans agreed that armed resistance had failed to protect Palestinians and had instead brought destruction.
    — Michael Robbins, Foreign Affairs, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Look past the 1951 setting, however, and the movie's anti-war message about humanity being on a crash course to destruction has never lost its poignancy.
    — Richard Edwards, Space.com, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of destruction
Verb
  • This is not the first time a coach in LAUSD has gotten into trouble trying to improve a facility, with the district issuing disciplinary action and demolishing the improvement because it was not authorized.
    — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2026
  • On Thursday, the judge ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days' notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of demolishing

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Cite this Entry

“Defacing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defacing. Accessed 3 Oct. 2026.

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