Synonyms of effacing

effacing

verb

present participle of efface

as in erasing

to destroy all traces of

when the supply ship finally arrived, it discovered that virtually all evidence of the colony at Roanoke had been effaced

Synonyms & Similar Words

• erasing
• eradicating
• abolishing
• destroying
• obliterating
• expunging
• annihilating
• exterminating
• shattering
• liquidating
• extirpating
• demolishing
• canceling
• sweeping (away)
• wiping out
• stamping (out)
• cleaning (up)
• dismantling
• blotting out
• killing
• rooting (out)
• ruining
• discarding
• flattening
• ravaging
• wrecking
• dissolving
• decimating
• devastating
• consuming
• blacking out
• snuffing (out)
• razing
• rubbing out
• wasting
• fragmenting
• finishing
• smashing
• dashing
• excising
• tearing down
• mowing (down)
• ejecting
• dynamiting
• powdering
• splintering
• devouring
• expelling
• pulverizing
• totaling
• atomizing
• terminating
• jettisoning
• ditching
• blasting
• killing off
• ousting
• cutting
• blowing up
• dooming
• zapping
• throwing out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• preserving
• protecting
• saving
• creating
• conserving
• forming
• making
• constructing
• building
• shaping
• forging
• manufacturing
• framing
• repairing
• restoring
• fixing
• reconstructing
• fashioning
• rebuilding
• fabricating
• renewing
• patching
• renovating
• mending
• revamping
• reconditioning

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of effacing

Their struggle has upturned the tabletop candle that illuminates the scene and any moment will surely extinguish it, effacing the giddy pattern formed by the writhing bodies and glowing, veiny bladder skin. — Julian Bell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026

The leaps in time have the eerie effect of effacing time—the layered succession of images implying their simultaneity in Lidia’s mind. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2026