Meanings
present singular third person disfigures · participle present disfiguring · participle past disfigured · past disfigured
- to irreversibly damage the shape or structure of something, negatively affecting its appearance or functionality without completely destroying it.
His face was disfigured by a terrible fire many years ago, leaving deep scars across his crooked nose.
1 more example
The North British Railway was always anxious to connect its line to Helensburgh Pier but the local residents would not permit their foreshore or promenade to be disfigured, so the company had to resort further east and on May 18, 1882, opened the railway pier and station at Craigendoran.
1959 November, G. H. Robin, “Railways to Helensburgh—a pre-electrification retrospect”, in Trains Illustrated, page 544Synonyms: leper, disfeature
Synonyms & antonyms
verbto irreversibly damage the shape or structure of something, negatively affecting its appearance or functionality without completely destroying it.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Anglo-Normandesfigurer
- Middle Englishdisfiguren
- Englishdisfigure
From Middle English disfiguren, from Anglo-Norman desfigurer.
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian обезобразявам, обезобразя
- обезобразявам (obezobrazjavam)to damage something's appearance or functionality
- обезобразя (obezobrazja)to damage something's appearance or functionality
- обезформявам (obezformjavam)to damage something's appearance or functionality
- обезформя (obezformja)to damage something's appearance or functionality
- обезформям (obezformjam)to damage something's appearance or functionality
Catalan desfigurar
- desfigurarto damage something's appearance or functionality
Chinese Mandarin 變醜 /变丑
- 變醜 /变丑 (biànchǒu)to damage something's appearance or functionality
Danish vansire, skamfere
- vansireto damage something's appearance or functionality
- skamfereto damage something's appearance or functionality
Esperanto deformi, misformi
- deformito damage something's appearance or functionality
- misformito damage something's appearance or functionality
- disaspektigito damage something's appearance or functionality
Finnish turmella, runnella
- turmellato damage something's appearance or functionality
- runnellato damage something's appearance or functionality
French défigurer
- défigurerto damage something's appearance or functionality
German entstellen, verunstalten
- entstellento damage something's appearance or functionality
- verunstaltento damage something's appearance or functionality
Irish ainimhigh, máchailigh
- ainimhighto damage something's appearance or functionality
- máchailighto damage something's appearance or functionality
Italian sfigurare
- sfigurareto damage something's appearance or functionality
Japanese 醜くする
- 醜くする (minikuku suru)to damage something's appearance or functionality
Latin dēturpō
- dēturpōto damage something's appearance or functionality
Polish oszpecać, oszpecić
- oszpecaćto damage something's appearance or functionality
- oszpecićto damage something's appearance or functionality
- zniekształcaćto damage something's appearance or functionality
- zniekształcićto damage something's appearance or functionality
Portuguese desfigurar
- desfigurarto damage something's appearance or functionality
Russian уро́довать, изуро́довать
- уро́довать (uródovatʹ)to damage something's appearance or functionality
- изуро́довать (izuródovatʹ)to damage something's appearance or functionality
Spanish desfigurar
- desfigurarto damage something's appearance or functionality
Swedish vanställa
- vanställato damage something's appearance or functionality
Tagalog despigurahin, papangitin
- despigurahinto damage something's appearance or functionality
- papangitinto damage something's appearance or functionality
Welsh hagru
- hagruto damage something's appearance or functionality
Cite this entry
disfigure. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disfigure
“disfigure.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disfigure. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “disfigure,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disfigure.
Source: disfigure on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.