Deface, disfigure mean to mar the appearance of a thing.
Deface usually suggests a marring of the face or external appearance of something; it frequently implies the effacement, obliteration, or removal of some part or detailc.
- It’s illegal to deface banknotes.
- He was fined for defacing library books.
Disfigure, as applied to a surface, implies deeper or more permanent injury than deface; as applied to figure or conformation, it frequently suggests such impairing of beauty or attractiveness as results from other than structural injury.
- Her face was disfigured by a long red scar.
- Many of the wounded had been badly disfigured.
- Wind turbines are large and noisy and they disfigure the landscape.