defeature

D2E1F4E1A1T1U1R1E1
UK/dɪˈfiːtjʊə(ɹ)/

noun

Defeat, overthrow, ruin.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

defeature1

noun
  1. Defeat, overthrow, ruin.

    This mischiefe framd, for their first loves defeature

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

defeature2

verbdefeature (third-person singular simple present defeatures, present participle defeaturing, simple past and past participle defeatured)

present singular third person defeatures · participle present defeaturing · participle past defeatured · past defeatured

  1. rareTo deform.
noundefeature (plural defeatures)

plural defeatures

  1. Disfigurement, defacement, deformation.

    What ruins are in me that can be found, / By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground / of my defeatures.

    c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]
    1 more example

    But no discovery was made, for no volley of reproach was uttered, and could they have looked in their mother's face they might have seen that strange defeatures were written there.

    1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 9

Origin

defeature · verb, noun

From de- + feature.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

defeature. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defeature

MLA

“defeature.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defeature. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “defeature,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defeature.

Source: defeature on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.