defacement

deface +‎ -ment

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈfeɪsmənt/
• Rhymes: -eɪsmənt

defacement (countable and uncountable, plural defacements)

1. An act of defacing; an instance of visibly marring or disfiguring something.

   Some consider the defacement of the Sphinx to be the most egregious crime of Napolean's campaigns.

2. An act of voiding or devaluing; nullification of the face value.

   The soldiers found a variety of creative uses for their payment scrip after its defacement to scrap paper; some used it as toilet paper.

3. (heraldry, vexillology) A symbol added to a flag or coat of arms to change it or make it different from another.

• Defacement generally has negative valence (that is, it is a bad thing), except in heraldry, where it is a neutral term.

• (act of defacing): disfiguration, graffiti, obliteration, vandalism
• (nullification of face value): cancellation, devaluation