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Deface   Listen
verb
Deface  v. t.  (past & past part. defaced; pres. part. defacing)  
1.
To destroy or mar the face or external appearance of; to disfigure; to injure, spoil, or mar, by effacing or obliterating important features or portions of; as, to deface a monument; to deface an edifice; to deface writing; to deface a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." "So by false learning is good sense defaced."
2.
To destroy; to make null. (Obs.) "(Profane scoffing) doth... deface the reverence of religion." "For all his power was utterly defaste (defaced)."
Synonyms: See Efface.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Deface" Quotes from Famous Books



... Grand Master, "it were time then to throw off our belts and spurs, Sir Conrade, deface our armorial bearings, and renounce our burgonets, if the highest honour of Christianity were conferred on an unchristened Turk ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott

... take them letters 't Major Henry's jest brought in, and deface the stamps on 'em? Turn the ink enter them pictur's o' George Washin'ton so 't his own mother's son wouldn't know him. I don't calk'late to have no stamps 't 's sent out from the Basin post-office washed out an' used over ...
— Vesty of the Basins • Sarah P. McLean Greene

... whatever to do with Jaffery and me. As I've told you it was not among Adrian's papers which we went through together. We're narrowed down to 'The Greater Glory.' Possibly," said I, with a despairing flash, "Jaffery had to pull it about so much and deface it with his own great scrawl, that he thought it might pain you to see it, and so he told you that it had disappeared at the printer's. Now that I remember, he did say something of ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke

... Liberal in principles, and the devoted friend of Orange, he was disposed however to prove that the champions of religious liberty were not the patrons of sedition. A riot occurring in the cathedral, where a violent mob were engaged in defacing whatever was left to deface in that church, and in heaping insults on the papists at their worship, the little Count, who, says a Catholic contemporary, "had the courage of a lion," dashed in among them, sword in hand, killed three upon the spot, and, aided by his followers, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... but the poor may not! They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes of the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse. They compel her to produce out of season, and when sterile she is made to take medicine in order to produce again. All ...
— Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

... the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with all those outward and sensible motions which may express or promote my invisible devotion. I should violate my own arm rather than a church, nor willingly deface the name of saint or martyr. At the sight of a cross or crucifix I can dispense with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour: I cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruitless journeys of pilgrims, ...
— Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici' - an Appreciation • Alexander Whyte

... our minds with his conspire to grace The Gentiles' great apostle, and deface Those state-obscuring sheds, that, like a chain, Seem'd to confine, and ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson

... the soul," or "May whose soul God pardon," were sufficient excuse for fanatics such as Dowsing to destroy or deface the beautiful brasses in various parts of the kingdom. But the fanatics were not alone to blame; for it is well known that churchwardens and even incumbents of our churches have in many cases taken up and sold the brasses to satisfy some whim of their ...
— A Short Account of King's College Chapel • Walter Poole Littlechild

... chiefest comfort doth rest: But Usury hates Hospitality, and cannot him abide, Because he for the poor and comfortless doth provide. Here he comes that hath undone many an honest man, And daily seeks to destroy, deface, and bring to ruin, if he can— Now, sir, have you taken possession, as ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley

... excess in New York than in London and other European cities seems to me utterly groundless. The "H-O" advertisement is not one whit more monstrous than, for instance, the huge announcements of cheap clothing-shops, &c., painted all over the ends of houses, that deface the railway approaches to Paris; nor is it so flagrant and aggressive as the illuminated advertisements of whisky and California wines that vulgarise the august spectacle of the Thames by night. It is true that the proprietors of "Castoria" have ...
— America To-day, Observations and Reflections • William Archer

... burnished sword. A burned device or character, especially that of the broad arrow on government stores, to deface or ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... that with the peasant and that with the fallen outcast, have firm self-consistency and clearness of conception; and these, as a natural consequence, are comparatively free from those tawdry spangles which deface the greater part of the poem. And, moreover, in the episode of "The Indian and the Lady," there is throughout a "keeping in the tone," as painters say, sultry and languid, yet rich and full of life, like a gorgeous Venetian picture, which ...
— Literary and General Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley

... vain; Broke have we seen the force of power, and honor suffer stain. In body's lust man doth resemble but base brute; True virtue gets and keeps a friend, good guide of our pursuit. Whose hearty zeal with ours accords in every case; No term of time, no space of place, no storm can it deface. ...
— For Auld Lang Syne • Ray Woodward

... animal life, which winter has so emphasized and brought out, begins to decline. Vague rumors are afloat in the air of a great and coming change. We are eager for Winter to be gone, since he, too, is fugitive and cannot keep his place. Invisible hands deface his icy statuary; his chisel has lost its cunning. The drifts, so pure and exquisite, are now earth-stained and weather-worn,—the flutes and scallops, and fine, firm lines, all gone; and what was a grace ...
— In the Catskills • John Burroughs

... disdain hath quenched, As Phoebus doth his sister Phoebe's shine; Consider how thy Corin being drenched In seas of woe, to thee his plaints incline, And at thy feet with tears doth sue for grace, Which art the goddess of his chaste desire; Let not thy frowns these labours poor deface Although aloft they at the first aspire; And time shall come as yet unknown to men When I more large ...
— Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles - Idea, by Michael Drayton; Fidessa, by Bartholomew Griffin; Chloris, by William Smith • Michael Drayton, Bartholomew Griffin, and William Smith

... him six thousand, and deface the bond; Double six thousand, and then treble that, Before a friend of this description Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. First, go with me to church, and call me wife: And then away to Venice to your friend! For never shall ...
— The Merchant of Venice [liberally edited by Charles Kean] • William Shakespeare

... unity; men must beware, that in the procuring, or reuniting, of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity, and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal; and both have their due office and place, in the maintenance of religion. But we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, or like unto it; that is, to propagate ...
— Essays - The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. - Verulam Viscount St. Albans • Francis Bacon

... one side from the immediate subject because this is as good an instance as any we are likely to come across of a certain almost extraneous fault which does deface the work of Bernard Shaw. It is a fault only to be mentioned when we have made the solidity of the merits quite clear. To say that Shaw is merely making game of people is demonstrably ridiculous; at least a fairly systematic philosophy ...
— George Bernard Shaw • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... many horses around her, insensible, as the second glance assured him, of all and forever. Glendinning almost rejoiced when he saw that the last misery of life was over, and that the hoofs of the war-horses, amongst which he was compelled to leave her, could only injure and deface a senseless corpse. He caught the infant from her arms, half ashamed of the shout of laughter which rose on all sides, at seeing an armed man in such a situation assume such ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... Dead Man's Rock, the "Rock" being superfluous, but I give it the name by which it has always been known, being to a certain extent suspicious of those antiquarian gentlemen that sometimes, in their eagerness to restore a name, would deface a tradition. ...
— Dead Man's Rock • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... making clean the dressers, and told him he must come to his Master presently into the parlor. The poor man excused himself, that his shooes were dirty and the room was rubb'd, and if he should but touch any thing there he should spoyl and deface those things in the room. But still the master of the House called for Master Whittington, sending one servant after another till he was brought before him; and having scraped some few legs, instantly his master took him by the hand, and called for a chair for Master Whittington, ...
— The History of Sir Richard Whittington • T. H.

... Miette, who by nature could not long maintain a contemplative attitude, began to tease; she would shake the rope, and make drops of water fall in order to ripple the mirrors and deface the reflections. Silvere would then entreat her to remain still; he, whose fervour was deeper than hers, knew no keener pleasure than that of gazing at his love's image reflected so distinctly in every feature. But she would not listen to him; she would joke and feign a ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... sing praises, All you within this place, And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace; This holy tide of Christmas All others doth deface. O tidings, etc. ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... founders of cities, not removers, like Theseus, who raised and compiled only one house out of many, demolishing many cities bearing the names of ancient kings and heroes. Romulus, indeed, did the same afterwards, forcing his enemies to deface and ruin their own dwellings, and to sojourn with their conquerors; but at first, not by removal, or increase of an existing city, but by foundation of a new one, he obtained himself lands, a country, a kingdom, wives, children, and relations. And, in so doing, he killed or destroyed nobody, but ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... either of his models, and is not without other remarkable merits of his own. As a man Cignani was eminently amiable, unassuming and generous. His success, however, made him many enemies; and the envy of some of these is said to have impelled them to deface certain of his works. He accepted none of the honours offered him by the duke of Parma and other princes, but lived and died an artist. On his removal to Forli, where he died, the school he had founded at Bologna was ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various

... faults or errors technical his Symphonies deface: He calculates in counterpoint, he thinks in thoroughbass: Composers of celebrity—musicians of renown— Confess that they're inferior far ...
— Lyra Frivola • A. D. Godley

... sing praises, All you within this place, And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace, This holy tide of Christmas All other doth deface." ...
— Broken to the Plow • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... noble building is a set of mean, low, one and two-story shanties, which deface the appearance of ...
— Young Americans Abroad - Vacation in Europe: Travels in England, France, Holland, - Belgium, Prussia and Switzerland • Various

... not art, but barely kept alive, And with old Greece unequally did strive: Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude northern race, Did all the matchless monuments deface. Then all the Muses in one ruin be, And rhyme began to enervate poetry. 50 Thus, in a stupid military state, The pen and pencil find an equal fate. Flat faces, such as would disgrace a screen, Such as in Bantam's embassy were seen, Unraised, unrounded, were the rude delight Of ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... Maister Robert Hammylton, Williame Harlay,[737] and otheris,[738]) exhorte thare brethrein, according to the giftes and graces granted unto thame. [SN: THIS WAS CALLED THE PREVYE KIRK.] Bot schort after did God stirre up his servand, Paule Methven,[739] (his latter fall[740] aught not to deface the work of God in him,) who in boldnes of spreit begane opinlie to preache Christ Jesus, in Dundie, in diverse partes of Anguss, and in Fyffe; and so did God work with him, that many began opinly to abrenunce thare ald idolatrie, and to submitt thame selfis to Christ ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... should I give consent to flatter sin. You know, my lord, your highness is betroth'd Unto another lady of esteem: How shall we then dispense with that contract, And not deface your honor with reproach? ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

... on ground which now belongs to the Union Oil Company of California. The building itself has been desecrated and damaged by the public ever since its abandonment. Its visitors apparently did not scruple to deface it in every possible way, and what could not be stolen was ruthlessly destroyed. It apparently was a pleasure to them to pry the massive roof-beams loose, in order to enjoy the crash occasioned by the breaking of the ...
— The Old Franciscan Missions Of California • George Wharton James

... all true—horribly, hideously true. The magical, mysterious power of beauty which had been given her, which might have helped to lighten the burden of the sad old world wherever she passed, she had used to destroy and deface and mutilate. The debt against her—the debt of all the pain and grief which she had brought to others—had been mounting up, higher and higher through the years. And now the time had come when ...
— The Lamp of Fate • Margaret Pedler

... w'th latest panges asaylde. Twyse thre and one he Children had, two sones, one kepes his name, And dowghters fyve for home he carde, y't lyve in honest fame. What booteth more, as he be kynde dyd come of Jentyll race, So Rouland Monoux good Desertes this grave can not Deface." ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 9, Saturday, December 29, 1849 • Various

... him six thousand and deface the bond, Double six thousand, and then treble that, Before a friend of this description Shall lose a hair thro' my Bassanio's fault. ——You shall have gold To pay the petty debt ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... let me view what noxious Nonsense reigns, While yet I loiter on Prosaic Plains; If Pens impartial active Annals trace, Others, with secret Histr'y, Truth deface: Views and Reviews, and wild Memoirs appear, And ...
— The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood • George Frisbie Whicher

... travelling; but then, Doctor, notes made by the Mind herself, with the Ruby Pen Nature gives all her children who have also discourse of Reason, are with the slightest touch, easilier far than glass by the diamond, traced on the tablets that disease alone seems to deface, death alone to break, but which, ineffaceable, and not to be broken, shall with all their miscellaneous inscriptions endure for ever—yea, even to the ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... of the castle were got in readiness—that is, they proceeded to deface them with decorations; for there was a solemnity and stateliness about them in their ordinary condition, which was at once felt to be unsuitable for the light-hearted company so soon to move about in them with the self-same ...
— The Portent & Other Stories • George MacDonald

... or political controversy-nor need you fear my disputing with you, though we disagree very considerably indeed about Papist's and Presbyterians. I hope you have not yet sent the manuscript to Mr. Lort, and if you have not, do entreat you to deface undecipherably what you have said about ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole

... boulders and dead trees; but the lad wound in and out and up and down without a check, for these paths are to the natives as marked as the king's highway is to us; insomuch that, in the days of the man-hunt, it was their labour rather to block and deface than to improve them. In the crypt of the wood the air was clammy and hot and cold; overhead, upon the leaves, the tropical rain uproariously poured, but only here and there, as through holes in a leaky roof, a single drop would fall, and make ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... friend, why need you apologize for not having visited him, and waste his time and deface your own act? Visit him now. Let him feel that the highest love has come to see him, in thee its lowest organ. Or why need you torment yourself and friend by secret self-reproaches that you have not assisted him or complimented him with gifts and salutations ...
— Essays, First Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... not a beast in courtesy, but stay, Stay at the third cup, or forego the place, Wine above all things doth God's stamp deface." ...
— Seekers after God • Frederic William Farrar

... found him de secta generosorum. No man might come in to studdie but graduats and thoes of 8 years contynuance in the Universitie, except noblemen. All that come in must firste sweare to use the bookes well, and not to deface theim, and everye one after at his proceedings must take the licke othe. Howers apoynted when they shuld come in to studdie, viz. betwene ix and xi aforenoone, and one and four afternoone, the keper geving attendaunce: yet a prerogative was graunted ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... fleshy Capon, or a like Hen; Dress it in the ordinary manner, and cleanse it within from the guts, &c. Then put in the fat again into the belly, and split the bones of the legs and wings (as far as you may, not to deface the fowl) so as the Marrow may distil out of them. Add a little fresh Butter and Marrow to it; season it with Salt, Pepper, and, what other Spice you like, as also savoury herbs. Put the Capon with all these condiments into a large strong sound bladder of an Ox (first well washed and ...
— The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened • Kenelm Digby

... canvas, rustily darkened. Yet if the dweller on holy Itone, who deigns defend our race and Erectheus' dwellings, grant thee to besprinkle thy right hand in the bull's blood, then see that in very truth these commandments deep-stored in thine heart's memory do flourish, nor any time deface them. Instant thine eyes shall see our cliffs, lower their gloomy clothing from every yard, and let the twisted cordage bear aloft snowy sails, where splendent shall shine bright topmast spars, so that, instant discerned, ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... moment I have taken my resolution. I am racing up-stairs. I have reached my room. I do not summon my maid. One requires no assistance to enable one to unbuild, deface, destroy. In a second—in much less time than it takes me to write it—I have torn off the mob-cap, and thrown it on the floor. If I had done what I wished, if I had yielded to my first impulse, I should also have trampled upon it; but from the extremity of petulance, I am proud to be able to tell ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... with mine owne readings and obseruations, ioined with the experience of sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in the like case haue done) the honour and glory of his owne trauaile: Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings, or mine, should deface, or any wayes darken the good enterprise, or painfull trauailes of such our Countrymen of England, as haue plentifully written of this matter: but alwayes haue, and do giue them the reuerence and honour due to so vertuous, ...
— On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, • Samuel Felton

... great Berenice Saw me, in heavenly-bright deification afar Lustrous, a gleaming glory; to gods full many devoted, Whiles she her arms in prayer lifted, as ivory smooth; 10 In that glorious hour when, flush'd with a new hymeneal, Hotly the King to deface outer Assyria sped, Bearing ensigns sweet of that soft struggle a night brings, When from a virgin's arms ...
— The Poems and Fragments of Catullus • Catullus

... death-giving wound. The blood bursts forth in continued streams. His hair is clotted with it. That cheek, that lately glowed, is now pale and sallow. All his features are deformed. The fire in his eye is extinguished for ever. Who has done this? What wanton and sacrilegious hand has dared deface the work of God? It could not be his preceptor, the man upon whom he heaped a thousand benefits? It could not be his friend? Oh, Rinaldo, all thy errors lie buried in the damp and chilly tomb, but thy blood shall for ever rise ...
— Italian Letters, Vols. I and II • William Godwin

... is one of these proud States; her arms have defended, her best blood has cemented this happy Union!" And then add, if you can, with out horror and remorse, "This happy Union we will dissolve this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface—this free intercourse we will interrupt—these fertile fields we will deluge with blood—the protection of that glorious flag we renounce—the very name of Americans we discard!" And for what, mistaken men! for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings—for what would you exchange ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... one of the most interesting. It ought to be read in conjunction with an earlier item in the same will, in which special directions are left to the executors not to pull down or to deface any manner of wainscot or glass in or about the house of Slyfield. For the end of the Slyfield family as a power in Surrey came with bitter suddenness. Henry, the Sheriff's eldest son, succeeded his father in 1590, and died in ...
— Highways and Byways in Surrey • Eric Parker

... never to be defended. It is always a detriment, and never an ornament. No excellence can justify it. No occasion can palliate it. But coarseness is of two kinds,—one of the surface, and one in the grain. The latter is pervading and irremediable. It touches nothing which it does not deface. It makes all things common and unclean. It grows more repulsive as the roundness of youth falls away and leaves its harsh features more sharply outlined. But the other coarseness is only the overgrowth of excellence,—the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 62, December, 1862 • Various

... blame to them, as the Irish say, for we are kept about three times as long by this regular, punctual King as by the capricious, irregular Monarch who last ruled over us. This King is a queer fellow. Our Council was principally for a new Great Seal and to deface the old Seal. The Chancellor claims the old one as his perquisite. I had forgotten the hammer, so the King said, 'My Lord, the best thing I can do is to give you the Seal, and tell you to take it and do what you please with it.' The Chancellor said, 'Sir, I believe there is ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. II • Charles C. F. Greville

... He could deface Elsie's copy-book, but Adelaide could testify to the little girl's carefulness and the neatness of her work up to that very day, for she had been in the school-room that morning during the writing hour. But then Adelaide had just left home to pay ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley

... but our ancestors retrieve their fate, And see their offspring thus degenerate; How we contend for birth and names unknown, And build on their past actions, not our own; They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface, And openly disown the vile degenerate race: For fame of families is all a cheat, It's personal virtue only ...
— The True-Born Englishman - A Satire • Daniel Defoe

... light-minded DILLETANTE, unfitted for the simple austerities of science. But this is itself a light-minded contempt; a deeper insight would change the tone, and help to remove the disgraceful slovenliness and feebleness of composition which deface the majority of grave works, except those written by Frenchmen, who have been taught that composition is an art and that no writer may neglect it. In England and Germany, men who will spare no labour ...
— The Principles of Success in Literature • George Henry Lewes

... where can I catch a single leisure day? For at earliest dawn I go to pick, and not till dusk return; Then the deep midnight sees me still before the firing pan— Will not labor like this my pearly complexion deface? ...
— Tea Leaves • Francis Leggett & Co.

... liberty, Though Graecia frowned, and all Mollossia stormed, Though brave Antigonus, with martial band, In pitched field encountered me and mine, Though Pandrassus and his contributories, With all the route of their confederates, Sought to deface our glorious memory And wipe the name of Trojans from the earth, Him did I captivate with this mine arm, And by compulsion forced him to agree To certain articles which there we did propound. From Graecia through the boisterous Hellespont, We came unto the fields of Lestrigon, Whereas ...
— 2. Mucedorus • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... buildings should be destroyed by order of the allied generals as a warning for the future. But why were soldiers and thieves allowed to steal the bric-a-brac and furniture and break the mirrors of the Emperor's personal apartments, wantonly to shatter beautiful columns, deface rare works of art, punch holes in gilded statues, maliciously smash the heads of thousands of exquisitely-carved figures and lions, and wreck venerable places associated with learning and art? The world is poorer for some of this havoc, and it will be a generation before it can be ...
— An Inevitable Awakening • ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN

... unexplained, a few medical terms. But I did not feel at liberty to change them, in the correspondence of Dr. North, for more popular language; and, having retained them thus far, it did not seem desirable to explain them elsewhere. Nor was I willing to deface the pages of the work with explanatory notes. The fact is, the technical terms alluded to, are, after all, very few in number, and may be generally understood by the connection in ...
— Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages • William Andrus Alcott

... a scheme of New York speculators to deface one of the finest avenues in Brooklyn. The most profitable business activity in this country is to invest other people's money. It seemed to me that the Lafayette railroad deal was only a sort of blackmailing institution to compel ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage

... pieces of the freestone for relics. This modern habit of chipping monumental stones for relics is inexcusable; for it is not done by ignorant or otherwise lawless persons, but too often by the educated, who carry their mawkish sentiment to such an extreme as to deface and sometimes, as in the present case, entirely to ruin a monument. It is in vain to urge that this was only a stranger's stone, and that there were none to care. It was all the more an outrage, ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities - Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts • Henry M. Brooks

... and painting of ours may be looked back upon, in some distant time, as a kind of doll-making, and that the words of Sir Isaac Newton may be smiled at no more: only it will not be for stars that we desert our stone dolls, but for men. When the day comes, as come it must, in which we no more deface and defile God's image in living clay, I am not sure that we shall any of us care so much for the images made of Him, in ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin

... illustrious wicked men. That man claims our respect who commands over the minds of the rest of the world by the force of truth, not those who enslave their fellow-creatures: he who is acquainted with the universe, not they who deface it. ...
— Letters on England • Voltaire

... canker-like into them, to make them too shed their leaves, to trample that, which it called heavenly, in the mire, and—far worse than the comparatively innocent beasts of the field, that are driven by a blind instinct without anything of volition—to deface and spoil everything which but now it worshipt as holy. From this conflagration then shoot forth ever and anon those disasterous sparks, which again grow into children, and again awaken to the consciousness of woe, if not of sin. And so the wheel goes evermore round and round, through ...
— The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano - Tales from the German of Tieck • Ludwig Tieck

... the spring, for man had done what he could to deface it. Here is a curious fact: the human being is capable of a certain amount of civilization under the pressure of the necessities of city life. He—or she—will learn to dispose inoffensively of the waste and rubbish that ...
— Upon The Tree-Tops • Olive Thorne Miller

... should have to pass this camp on our route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, I deposited 100 pounds of flour and a quantity of shot and lead, horse-shoes, etc., in a cleft in the rocks, and covered them with large stones, and then set the grass on fire to deface our tracks; at 8.15 a.m. left the camp and proceeded along our former track till noon, and camped on a small creek two ...
— Journals of Australian Explorations • A C and F T Gregory

... sort of thing to travel through a country whose commonest advertisements were in idiomatic French, and Miss Winchelsea made unpatriotic comparisons because there were weedy little sign-board advertisements by the rail side instead of the broad hoardings that deface the landscape in our land. But the north of France is really uninteresting country, and after a time Fanny reverted to Hare's Walks, and Helen initiated lunch. Miss Winchelsea awoke out of a happy reverie; she had been trying to realise, she said, that she was actually going to Rome, but she ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... and yourself, and wishes to rejoin you. My sister and myself join in respect, and pray tell Mr. Donne, with our compliments, that we shall be disappointed, if we do not see him. This letter being very neatly written, I am very unwilling that Emma should club any of her disproportionate scrawl to deface it. ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6) - Letters 1821-1842 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... foam that should come out of its mouth, vexed and angry at his work, he took his sponge, which by cleaning his pencils had imbibed several sorts of colours, and threw it in a rage against the picture, with an intent utterly to deface it; when fortune guiding the sponge to hit just upon the mouth of the dog, it there performed what all his art was not able to do. Does she not sometimes direct our counsels and correct them? Isabel, Queen of England, having to sail from Zealand into her own kingdom,—[in 1326]— with ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... "should one fill a white young mind with ugly images which would deface with dark marks and smears, and could only produce unhappiness and, perhaps, morbid broodings? One does not feel it is wise to give a girl an education in crime. One would not permit her to read ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... careless thoughts are freed of that flame Wherewith her thralls are scorched to the heart: If Love would so, would God the enchanting dart Might once return and burn from whence it came! Not to deface of Beauty's work the frame, But by rebound It might be found What secret smart I suffer by ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various

... the roads without waiting for the lights to change (it would be a long, long wait if he did) ... go to sleep when he wanted, eat as many meals as he wanted whenever he chose.... He could go naked in hot weather and there'd be no one to raise an eyebrow, deface public buildings (except that they were private buildings now, his buildings), idle without the guilty feeling that there was always something better he could and should be doing ... even if there were not. There would be no more ...
— The Most Sentimental Man • Evelyn E. Smith

... your blessing, That in passion's best expressing; Love that only lives to grace ye, May not suffer pride deface ye; But in gentle thought's directions Show the power of ...
— Tudor and Stuart Love Songs • Various

... to deface and efface every crown, every fleur de lis, every inscription wherein the words king, queen, prince, royal, or the like, were found. The hotels and lodging-houses were compelled to erase and change their names, that of the Prince de Galles must be called de Galles only; that ...
— A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 • Richard Twiss

... readings & obseruations, joined with the experience of sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in the like case haue done) the honour & glory of his owne trauaile: Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings or mine, should deface, or any waves darken the good enterprise, or painfull trauailes of such our countrymen, of England, as haue plentifully written of this matter: but always haue, & do giue them the reuerence & honour due to so vertuous, & well ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... Portuguese merchant buried his disciple by night; and on the next morning, there appeared a beautiful cross, printed on the ground, which covered the body of the martyr. The spectacle extremely surprised the infidels. They did what they were able, to deface, and (if I may so say) to blot out the cross, by treading over it, and casting earth upon it. It appeared again the day following, in the same figure, and they once more endeavoured to tread it out. But then it appeared ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... thundered a voice from behind, that filled the apprentice with dismay. "Come down, sirrah, and I'll teach you how to deface my walls in future. Come down, I say, instantly, or I'll make you." Upon which, Mr. Wood caught hold of Jack's leg, and dragged ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth

... preach the gospell.] Pauline openlie to preach the gospell, and renouncing his worshipping of false gods, professed the Christian faith. And when he demanded of his bishop Coifi who should first deface the altars of their idols, and the tabernacles wherewith they were compassed about? He answered, that himselfe would doo it. "For what is more meet (saith he) than that I, which thorough foolishnesse haue worshipped them, should now for example sake destroie ...
— Chronicles 1 (of 6): The Historie of England 5 (of 8) - The Fift Booke of the Historie of England. • Raphael Holinshed

... and moon's eclipses are, The moon's are often, but the sun's more rare The moon's do much deface her beauty bright; Sol's do not his, but hide from us his sight: It is the earth the moon's defect procures, 'Tis the moon's shadow that the sun obscures. Eastward, moon's front beginneth first to lack, Westward, sun's brows begin their mourning black: Moon's eclipses come ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 281, November 3, 1827 • Various

... quiet spot and the good old monks with some regret. A great change has been effected since our arrival in early May. The heaps of filth have given place to extreme cleanliness; the monks wash their hands and faces; even the monastery yard is swept. No atom of impurity is allowed to deface the walk from the cold spring to the great walnut-tree. My little garden has flourished and produced largely; the melons were of excellent flavour; the tomatoes and other vegetables were good, including a species of esculent amaranthus which is a substitute for spinach. I employed a ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... illegal trial; but we alike abjure your principles and practice. If I hunt a usurper and tyrant to death, it shall be by honourable means. If his character deserves no respect, I know what is due to my own. I hold no tenets in common with regicides. Man cannot commit a crime that can so far deface the image of his Maker impressed upon him as to reduce him to the level of a beast of prey. Would that this unnerved arm had strength, and that this sinking frame were again erect with youthful vigour, then, if the ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... Canongate," just published—I mean in the character of Mr. Croftangry,—it is clear that he is conscious of such slips and carelessness as I have before pointed out. I am therefore at a loss to understand why he should allow them to remain like spots that deface the general beauty of his productions, as by submitting them for perusal to the merest Tyro in grammar or composition before they were sent to press, they could not fail ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 10, Issue 285, December 1, 1827 • Various

... miseries. The waving reeds stand free from every gust, When the tall oaks are rent up by the roots. What is vain beauty but an idle breath? Why are we proud of that which so soon changes? But rather wish the beauty of the mind, Which neither time can alter, sickness change, Violence deface, nor the black hand of envy Smudge and disgrace, or spoil, or make deform'd. O, had my riotous husband borne this mind, He had been happy, I had been more blest, And peace had brought ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various

... though pompous show, Edwin would oft his flowery rhyme deface, Through ardour to adorn; but Nature now To his experienced eye a modest grace Presents, where ornament the second place Holds, to intrinsic worth and just design Subservient still. Simplicity apace Tempers his rage: he owns her charm divine, And ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

... stamp the Brusselette carpet you bought at Wren's auction. In their horseplay with Moll the romp to find the buck flea in her breeches they will deface the little statue you carried home in the rain for art for art' sake. They will violate the secrets of your bottom drawer. Pages will be torn from your handbook of astronomy to make them pipespills. And they will spit in ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... jealous-eyed disfavour in this House. It makes for sure oppression, binding men To serve for less than service proves it worth Conditioned by no hampering penalty. For these and late-spoke reasons, then, I say, Let not the Act deface the statute-book, But blot it ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy

... bauble, that we did our best to acquiesce in it. After all, we could admire, without any breach of sincerity, the natural beauties of this spot, which very much resembles the more open parts of the glen where Matlock is situated, and which all these abominations could not entirely deface. How to account for this perversion of eye in a people of sensibility and taste, I am rather at a loss; but this last is by no means a singular instance. "Bientot vous allez sortir de ces tristes bois," compassionately observed a very gentleman-like officer, with whom we ...
— Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone - Made During the Year 1819 • John Hughes

... seen in the first volume of his travels. They are all of late date in comparison of the statue itself; the antiquity of which is very great. One of these inscriptions is particular, and relates to the Omphi, which seems to have frightened away some ill-disposed people in an attempt to deface the image: ...
— A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. • Jacob Bryant

... marble column's yet unshaken base; Here, son of Saturn, was thy fav'rite throne— Mightiest of many such! Hence let me trace The latent grandeur of thy dwelling-place. It may not be—nor ev'n can Fancy's eye Restore what time hath labour'd to deface: Yet these proud pillars, claiming sigh, Unmoved the Moslem ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various

... served for the devotions of his successors until Henry the Sixth was stabbed to death before the cross. Sparing neither skill nor gold to make the great fortress worthy of his art, he sent to Purbeck for marble and to Caen for stone. The dabs of lime, the spawls of flint, the layers of brick which deface the walls and towers in too many places are of either earlier or later times. The marble shafts, the noble groins, the delicate traceries, are Henry's work. Traitor's Gate was built by him. In short, nearly all that is purest in art is ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume I. - Great Britain and Ireland • Various

... its condemnation. What object of his ambition is unsatisfied? When disabled from age any longer to hold the sceptre of power, he designates his successor, and transmits it to his favorite! What more does he want? Must we blot, deface, and mutilate the records of the country, to punish the presumptuousness of expressing an opinion contrary to his own? What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this Expunging resolution? Can you make that not to be which has been? Can you eradicate from memory and from history ...
— Henry Clay's Remarks in House and Senate • Henry Clay

... dryhe Withoute slep to waken evere, So that I scholde noght dissevere Fro hire, in whom is al my liht: And thanne I curse also the nyht 2840 With al the will of mi corage, And seie, "Awey, thou blake ymage, Which of thi derke cloudy face Makst al the worldes lyht deface, And causest unto slep a weie, Be which I mot nou gon aweie Out of mi ladi compaignie. O slepi nyht, I thee defie, And wolde that thou leye in presse With Proserpine the goddesse 2850 And with Pluto the helle king: For til I se the daies spring, I sette slep noght at a risshe." And ...
— Confessio Amantis - Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins, 1330-1408 A.D. • John Gower

... it ever y-red ben or y-songe, The pleynte that she made in hir distresse? 800 I noot; but, as for me, my litel tonge, If I discreven wolde hir hevinesse, It sholde make hir sorwe seme lesse Than that it was, and childishly deface Hir heigh compleynte, and ...
— Troilus and Criseyde • Geoffrey Chaucer

... be unlawful to cut, destroy, injure, deface or break any ornamental, nut bearing, food producing or shade tree upon any public highway or place, except where such trees shall interfere with the proper construction or maintenance of such highways. It shall be unlawful ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting. Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915 • Various

... fitted should knock together with the weight of the clenched fist; the use of a heavy mallet or hammer will deface the work. ...
— Woodwork Joints - How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used. • William Fairham

... by Knez Alfanas, and Peter Gregoriwich in the Emperours name, that if Benet Butler or any English man complaine, deface, hinder in way of traffike or otherwise go about to discredit the worshipfull company, and their doings, that therein they shall not be heard, and the doers to be punished, as in such cases they shalbe ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt

... the shabby tricks which now disgrace our politics, those tricks which shame the devil; I ask the voters to deface corruption and our country place upon a higher level. Through endless wastes of words I roam to make the Fireside and the Home the nation's shrine and glory; and Purity must ring again in every offspring of my pen, ...
— Rippling Rhymes • Walt Mason

... explain the statement of Epiphanius? It is a simple blunder, not more egregious than scores of other blunders which deface his pages. He had not seen the Diatessaron: this our author himself says. But he had heard that it was in circulation in certain parts of Syria; and he knew also that the Gospel of the Hebrews was current in these same regions, there ...
— Essays on "Supernatural Religion" • Joseph B. Lightfoot

... and calls back the April of her prime; asks him why he abuses the bounteous largess given him to give; calls him a profitless usurer; tells him that the hours that have made him fair will unfair him; that he should not let winter's rugged hand deface ere he has begotten a child, though it were a greater happiness should he beget ten. He asks if his failure to marry is because he might wet a widow's eye, and then in successive Sonnets cries shame on his friend for being ...
— Testimony of the Sonnets as to the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays and Poems • Jesse Johnson

... sweet bells never jangled out of tune; and kindred spirits abounded. The knowledge of that land's geography . . . "east o' the sun, west o' the moon" . . . is priceless lore, not to be bought in any market place. It must be the gift of the good fairies at birth and the years can never deface it or take it away. It is better to possess it, living in a garret, than to be the ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... God for eye confounde and pluck thee from thy place. Thy seed and root from out the grounde and so shall thee deface; ...
— Sabbath in Puritan New England • Alice Morse Earle

... Don't you know it's against the regulations to deface any natural object in the park? I'll have to telephone in the number of your car. You must see the commissioner before you leave ...
— Maw's Vacation - The Story of a Human Being in the Yellowstone • Emerson Hough

... the house, Knox," said Harley, hoarsely. "For God's sake keep the women away. Get Pedro, and send Manoel for the nearest doctor. It's useless but usual. Let no one deface his footprints. My worst anticipations have come true. The local ...
— Bat Wing • Sax Rohmer

... prairie rather, genial, level-lined, Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. Nothing of Europe here, Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, Ere any names of Serf or Peer Could Nature's equal scheme deface; Here was a type of the true elder race, And one of Plutarch's men talked with ...
— The Poets' Lincoln - Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President • Various

... shall deface, Revenging all your cold Disdain, And Silvia shall neglected pass, By every once admiring Swain; And we can only Pity pay, When you in vain too late shall burn: If Love increase, and Youth delay, Ah, Silvia, who will ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn

... if the devil gets your mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys your perfect peace. It is like the polish on a mirror, or an exquisite toilet table, one scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is the smaller the scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a very little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future salvation; but have you about your present business or earthly cares, your money and ...
— Days of Heaven Upon Earth • Rev. A. B. Simpson

... apace 65 The shadow of white Death, and at the door Invisible Corruption waits to trace His extreme way to her dim dwelling-place; The eternal Hunger sits, but pity and awe Soothe her pale rage, nor dares she to deface 70 So fair a prey, till darkness and the law Of change, shall o'er his sleep ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... pilgrims there have rest, Their wand'rings o'er; There the slave, no more oppress'd, Hails Freedom's shore. Sin shall then no more deface, Sickness, pain, and sorrow cease, Ending in eternal peace, And ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel , Volume I. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... others are made to lean against that, till the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvas of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned; the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered to leak through and deface the engraving—no matter. If the glass is clean and the frame shines, it is sufficient—the rest is not worthy of consideration. An able arithmetician hath made a calculation, founded on long experience, and proved that the losses and destruction incident to ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... is just right; I will give you a patient. Will you have me? I am famous practise; for there is scarcely a day when I do not deface God's noblest work for others, or they for me. Will you undertake the care of all the holes I make in the skin of others or others ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas

... roof, with its enormous weight of hanging stone, seems to crush one—to bar out the free sky above. Those pointed windows, too—how gloriously the western sun is streaming through them! but their rich hues only dim and deface his light. I can feel what you say, when I look at the cathedral on the outside; there, indeed, every line sweeps the eye upward—carries it from one pinnacle to another, each with less and less standing-ground, till at the summit the ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... and some lessons in spelling, and covering the whole with a very thin sheet of horn, which was fastened on the board as glass is fastened over a framed picture. Thus the children could see the letters and words under the horn, but were not able to deface or tear the paper. It was difficult to get books in those days, and a hornbook would last ...
— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton

... the twilight chamber spreads apace The shadow of white Death, and at the door Invisible Corruption waits to trace His extreme way to her dim dwelling-place; 5 The eternal Hunger sits, but pity and awe Soothe her pale rage, nor dares she to deface So fair a prey, till darkness and the law Of change shall o'er his sleep the mortal ...
— Adonais • Shelley

... sufficiently to destroy the remainder of the food; nor for him that hath supplied his necessities from the fountain to stop it up; nor for him that hath made use of any marks, either by sea or land, to ruin or deface them; but every one ought to leave those things that may be useful to those persons that afterwards may have need of them. Therefore it is not fit, out of a saving covetous humor, to put out a ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... texture; and that these easily-damaged habiliments may be kept clean and uninjured, the restless activity so natural and needful for the young is restrained. The exercise which becomes doubly requisite when the clothing is insufficient, is cut short, lest it should deface the clothing. Would that the terrible cruelty of this system could be seen by those who maintain it! We do not hesitate to say that, through enfeebled health, defective energies, and consequent non-success in life, thousands ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... far as I could learn, was either scalped or carried away prisoner. The Hurons had gone about an hour or two, when I came up to the place where they fought, and I sat down looking at the dead bodies, and thinking to myself what creatures men were to deface God's image in that way, when I saw under a bush two little sharp eyes looking at me; at first, I thought it was some beast, a lynx, mayhap, as they now call them, and I pointed my rifle toward it; but before I pulled the trigger, I thought that ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat

... capital until 1767 when it was laid in ruins by the Burmese who, though Buddhists, did not scruple to destroy or deface the temples and statues with which it was ornamented. But the collapse of the Siamese was only local and temporary. A leader of Chinese origin named Phaya Tak Sin rallied their forces, cleared the Burmese out of ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... upon whome he had attended in Spayne, loved his Country with to unskilfull a tendernesse, and was of so excellent a temper and disposition, that the barbarous tymes, and the rough partes he was forced to acte in them, did not wype out or much deface those markes, insomuch as he was never guilty of any rudenesse towards those, he was oblieged to oppresse, but performed always as good offices towards his old frendes, and all other persons, as the iniquity of the tyme, and the nature of the imployment he was in, ...
— Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles • Various

... lost in vapors blind; Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. Nothing of Europe here, Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, Ere any names of Serf and Peer Could Nature's equal scheme deface And thwart her genial will; Here was a type of the true elder race, And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. I praise him not; it were too late; And some innative weakness there must be In him who condescends to victory Such as the ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... names I view'd, The greater part by hostile time subdued; Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past, And poets once had promised they should last. Some fresh engraved appear'd of wits renown'd; I look'd again, nor could their trace be found. Critics I saw, that other names deface, And fix their own, with labour, in their place: Their own, like others, soon their place resign'd, Or disappear'd, and left the first behind. 40 Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone, But felt the approaches of too warm a sun; For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays Not more by envy ...
— The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1 • Alexander Pope et al

... sufficiently recovered to walk about Swanage. One day she was even strong enough to get as far as the Tilly Whim caves, where she was both surprised and disgusted to find that some surpassing mediocrity had had the fatuousness to deface the sheer glory of the cliffs with improving texts, such as represent the sum of the world's wisdom to the mind of a successful grocer, who has a hankering after the natural science which is retailed in ninepenny popular handbooks. Often in these walks, Mavis encountered ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte

... boys, each carrying a slight iron bar connecting two oil lamps; a crowd of tourists of many nationalities—all waiting to enter the Grottoes of Han. Presently the guide arrives, and delivers a brief speech as to the possible consequences should visitors deface or purloin the treasures of the cave, demanding silence during his explanations, and declaring that one light-bearer would accompany every four persons. He ceases, and away we go. Down, down, down, apparently into the ...
— Chatterbox, 1905. • Various

... read in the classes without diminishing the reverence with which it ought to be regarded as the book of God. But I would have it used chiefly by the older scholars, who, if the teachers are not in the fault, will rarely deface it. A few words now and then, reminding them of its sacred contents, will be sufficient to protect it from rough and ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... of all kinds is forbidden, and promptly checked. Visitors are requested not to walk on the grass, except in those places where the word Common is posted; not to pick flowers, leaves, or shrubs, or in any way deface the foliage; not to throw stones or other missiles; not to scratch or deface the masonry or carving; and not harm or feed the birds. No one is allowed to offer anything for sale within the limits ...
— The Secrets Of The Great City • Edward Winslow Martin

... If it's the truth, why shouldn't one say it? But if it's the truth, again, you have no right to deface the beauty. Do give up ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond

... satyrs, that in woods delight, Now into plains with pricked-up ears take flight; And scudding thence, while they their horn-feet ply, About their sires the little silvans cry. A nation loving gold must rule this place, Our temples ruin, and our rites deface: To them, O king, is thy lost sceptre given. Now mourn thy fatal search, for since wise heaven More ill than good to mortals does dispense, It is not safe to have ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott

... Lord sing praises, All you within this place, And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace; This holy tide of Christmas All others doth deface. O tidings of comfort and joy! For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Was born ...
— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various

... but, as soon as a man has had the misfortune to make himself a name, he becomes public property. Every one rakes into his life, relates his most trivial actions, and insults his feelings; he becomes like those walls, which every passer-by may deface with some abusive writing. Perhaps you will say that I have myself encouraged this curiosity by publishing my Confessions. But the world forced me to it. They looked into my house through the blinds, ...
— An "Attic" Philosopher, Complete • Emile Souvestre

... changing in spring to a glorious scarlet and black, or to an exquisite indigo colour respectively. Not only do most of the females of the feathered world retain their dull coats throughout the year, but some deface even this to form feather beds for the precious eggs and nestlings, to protect which bright ...
— The Log of the Sun - A Chronicle of Nature's Year • William Beebe

... done in neatness, Rinse the sides, and rinse the handles, Rinse thy pitchers to perfection, Spoons, and forks, and knives, and goblets, Rinse with care thy cooking-vessels, Closely watch the food-utensils, That the dogs may not deface them, That the kittens may not mar them, That the eagles may not steal them, That the children may not break them; Many children in the village, Many little heads and fingers, That will need thy careful watching, Lest they steal ...
— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.

... anodyne for cross, peevish, won't-be-comforted little bairns, ought to be laid aside for more learned books, such as THEY could select and publish. Fudge! I tell you that all their batterings can't deface my beauties, nor their wise pratings equal my wiser prattlings; and all imitators of my refreshing songs might as well write a new Billy Shakespeare as another Mother Goose—we two great poets were born together, and we shall go out of ...
— The Only True Mother Goose Melodies • Anonymous

... to where the "worked stones" were lying. We found them to be broken fragments of statues, one larger, better worked, and in much fairer preservation than the others. They had all been much battered and broken. The greater size and solidity of this one had made it more difficult to deface. It was in two parts, the head being severed from the body. The total length of the two fragments was about five feet. The face had been much shattered. The nose was gone and the mouth defaced, but enough was left to show that ...
— The Naturalist in Nicaragua • Thomas Belt

... Rome in our museums. Let them realize that these monuments in our cathedrals and churches are just as valuable, as they are the best of English art, and then no sacrilegious hand would dare to injure them or deface them by scratching names upon them or by carrying away broken chips as souvenirs. Playful boys in churchyards sometimes do much mischief. In Shrivenham churchyard there is an ancient full-sized effigy, and two village urchins were recently seen amusing ...
— Vanishing England • P. H. Ditchfield

... himself, at Bethlehem, taught children to read the ancient poets; not unmindful that the blessed Paul himself, in those writings which are the food of our spirit, takes occasion to cite from more than one poet who knew not Christ. If you would urge the impurity and idolatry which deface so many pages of the ancients, let me answer you in full with a brief passage of the holy Augustine. "For," says he, "as the Egyptians had not only idols to be detested by Israelites, but also precious ...
— Veranilda • George Gissing

... commission shall deface me I know not. He is wary to observe his commission, and I consent withal. I know the time will be her Majesty will be sorry for it. In the meantime I am too, too weary of the high dignity. I would that any that could serve her Majesty were placed in it, and ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... containing these footprints exactly as they were made by the animal, without having suffered change. They are usually more or less disturbed or obliterated by the too soft nature of the mud, the coarseness of the materials, and by many other circumstances which we may easily see would deface them, so that although the general form of the foot may be apparent, the minute traces of its appendages are almost invariably lost. In general, except in thick-toed species, we cannot discover the distinct evidences of the structure of the toes, each ...
— The Rain Cloud - or, An Account of the Nature, Properties, Dangers and Uses of Rain • Anonymous

... San Siro on Good Friday they hang the columns and the windows with black; they cover the pictures and deface the altar; above the high altar they raise a crucifix, and below they place a catafalque with the effigy of the dead Christ. To this sad symbol they address their prayers and incense, chant their 'litanies and lurries,' ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... Decrease malkreski. Decree dekreto. Dedicate dedicxi. Dedication dedicxo. Deduce depreni. Deduct depreni. Deduction depreno. Deed faro. Deem pensi. Deep (sound) basa. Deep profunda. Deer cervo. Deface forigi, surstreki. Defame kalumnii. Defeat venki. Defeat (n.) malvenko—ego. Defect difekto—ajxo. Defend defendi. Defer prokrasti. Deference respektego. Deficiency deficito. Defile (n.) intermonto. Defile (soil) ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... to auouch the trueth, and to shake off the yoke of railers & reuilers. My estate enabled me onely to write; howbeit the excellencie of trueth and the in bred affection I beare to my countrey enforceth me to do the best I can: sithens it hath pleased some strangers by false rumours to deface, and by manifolde reproches to iniurie my sayd countrey, making it a by word, and a langhing-stocke to all other nations. To meet with whose insolencie and false accusations, as also to detect the errours of certeine writers concerning this Island, vnto good and well affected ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... thou dost acknowledge that man is formed in God's image, it must be obvious to thee that to deface His image must be contrary to His law and will. The world is large, and God intends it to be peopled; whereas, by wars, the population ceases to increase, and that happy time when hymns of praise shall ascend from all quarters of the globe ...
— A True Hero - A Story of the Days of William Penn • W.H.G. Kingston

... hast for me Galors hath also. And shall I let my looks undo me with thee, and thee with me? I will follow thee as a servant, and never leave thee without it be thy will. I beseech of thee deface not thine own image which I carry here. ...
— The Forest Lovers • Maurice Hewlett



Words linked to "Deface" :   mangle, defacement, pock, disfigure, pit, deflower, vitiate, maul, mar, spoil, mark



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