efface
See also: effacé
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle French effacer (“erase”), from Old French esfacier (“remove the face”).
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): /əˈfeɪs/, /ɪˈfeɪs/
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪs
Verb edit
efface (third-person singular simple present effaces, present participle effacing, simple past and past participle effaced)
- (transitive) To erase (as anything impressed or inscribed upon a surface); to render illegible or indiscernible.
- Do not efface what I've written on the chalkboard.
- 1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman, A.L. Burt Company (1832?), 15:
- An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.
- (transitive) To cause to disappear as if by rubbing out or striking out.
- Some people like to efface their own memories with alcohol.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 254:
- The bright records of the last hour effaced all the darker traces left by long and weary days.
- (intransitive) To make oneself inobtrusive as if due to modesty or diffidence.
- Many people seem shy, but they really just efface for meekness.
- (medicine, intransitive) Of the cervix during pregnancy, to thin and stretch in preparation for labor.
- Some females efface 75% by the 39th week of pregnancy.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to erase
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cause to disappear as if by rubbing out
make oneself inobtrusive
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See also edit
Anagrams edit
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
efface f (plural effaces)
Verb edit
efface
- inflection of effacer:
Further reading edit
- “efface”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.