effacing

verb

present participle of efface
as in erasing
to destroy all traces of when the supply ship finally arrived, it discovered that virtually all evidence of the colony at Roanoke had been effaced

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of effacing By October of 1945, The Nation’s embrace of world government as a practical solution for the problem of potentially life-effacing weapons had somewhat abated. — Richard Kreitner, Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2026 Their struggle has upturned the tabletop candle that illuminates the scene and any moment will surely extinguish it, effacing the giddy pattern formed by the writhing bodies and glowing, veiny bladder skin. — Julian Bell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026 The leaps in time have the eerie effect of effacing time—the layered succession of images implying their simultaneity in Lidia’s mind. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for effacing
  1. erasing
  2. eradicating
  3. abolishing
  4. destroying
Verb
  • Karlsson was ruled offside after a review, erasing Egor Chinakhov’s work of art.
    — Josh Yohe, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2026
  • This component's other skills include locating large files and folders, locating empty files, irretrievably erasing drives (other than the boot drive), uninstalling apps, and defragmenting disks and the registry.
    — Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of erasing
Verb
  • This park is the result of the Tompkins’ passion for this part of the world and their desire to rewild this part of Chile that had been overfarmed and overgrazed to the point of almost eradicating its native flora and fauna.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Community meetings focus on eradicating the homeless and protecting property values rather than supporting neighbors or providing shelter.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of eradicating
Verb
  • The vice president also blasted Nixon, who is in an uphill race to defeat Moody, for supporting defunding the police and abolishing prisons.
    — Mabinty Quarshie, The Washington Examiner, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Coleman later joins forces with HopesAndDrums for a house mix that calls for abolishing ICE.
    — Andrea Flores, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of abolishing
Verb
  • Sign up for the newsletter When the rain does fall, Kabul’s hard, impermeable surfaces mean the water doesn’t replenish aquifers, but instead sweeps through the city as flash floods, destroying homes, killing people and rolling away.
    — Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Space debris is generated not only by kinetic space weapons but also when satellites collide and get smashed into countless fragments and smaller particles that travel at high velocity and are capable of destroying or damaging more spacecraft.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of destroying

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effaces
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Cite this Entry

“Effacing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/effacing. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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