efface Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb remove completely from recognition or memory
    obliterate.
    • efface the memory of the time in the camps
  2. verb make inconspicuous
    • efface oneself
  3. verb remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
    wipe off; score out; erase; rub out.
    • Please erase the formula on the blackboard--it is wrong!

WordNet

Ef*face" transitive verb
Etymology
F. effacer; pref. es- (L. ex) + face face; prop., to destroy the face or form. See Face, and cf. Deface.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Effaced ; present participle & verbal noun Effacing
Definitions
  1. To cause to disappear (as anything impresses or inscribed upon a surface) by rubbing out, striking out, etc.; to erase; to render illegible or indiscernible; as, to efface the letters on a monument, or the inscription on a coin.
  2. To destroy, as a mental impression; to wear away.
    Efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received. Bacon.
    Syn. -- To blot out; expunge; erase; obliterate; cancel; destroy. -- Efface, Deface. To deface is to injure or impair a figure; to efface is to rub out or destroy, so as to render invisible.

Webster 1913