Sample Sentences for
efface
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

efface as in:  efface the memory

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She effaced the memory of the time in the camps.
    effaced = removed completely
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    No combination of sweet words could efface the injustice she was doing.
    efface = remove completely
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    She desperately wants to win--thinking it will efface her earlier humiliation.
    efface = remove
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    Your dear thoughts have now effaced That beauty that so won me at the outset.  (source)
    effaced = erased or removed from notice
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    Nor could they efface the images that lingered in Pedro and Tita's minds, marking them forever.  (source)
    efface = remove completely
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    All Lucy's loveliness had come back to her in death, and the hours that had passed, instead of leaving traces of 'decay's effacing fingers', had but restored the beauty of life, till positively I could not believe my eyes that I was looking at a corpse.  (source)
    effacing = erasing
  • •
    It fell over Elisha like a golden robe, and struck John's forehead, where Elisha had kissed him, like a seal ineffaceable forever.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in ineffaceable means not and reverses the meaning of effaceable. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • •
    Democracy, which destroys or obscures almost all the old conventional rules of society, and which prevents men from readily assenting to new ones, entirely effaces most of the feelings to which these conventional rules have given rise; but it only modifies some others, and frequently imparts to them a degree of energy and sweetness unknown before.†  (source)
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    It would have taken days of sequestration from the winds and the sun to have brought about the effacement of that.†  (source)
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    Matters were at this point, as Newman Noggs was heard to limp past the door on his way upstairs; when Mrs Kenwigs, gaining new hope from the sound of his footsteps, hastily removed from her countenance as many traces of her late emotion as were effaceable on so short a notice: and presenting herself before him, and representing their dilemma, entreated that he would escort Morleena to the hairdresser's shop.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
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    These hollows are uneffaceable; these formations are indestructible.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uneffaceable means not and reverses the meaning of effaceable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    Footsteps were easily printed on the snow! But soon, under a new sheet, every imprint would be effaced.  (source)
    effaced = erased (hidden from view)
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    Because it was not a discrete event; it was the form of an Not content with the toll exacted by means of incarceration and forced labor in inhospitable climes, the supreme authorities sought to efface the Enemies of the People.  (source)
    efface = remove completely from recognition or memory
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efface as in:  efface herself

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    She backed to the corner trying to efface herself.
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    It was not in her nature to efface herself.
    efface = make herself inconspicuous or unimportant
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    She believes people should efface themselves before God.
    efface = make themselves unimportant
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Show 4 more with 3 word variations
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    They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.  (source)
    efface = make themselves inconspicuous or unimportant
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    Then I saw a shadow flit across her face, and she drew back against the wall, effacing herself, as a step sounded outside and Maxim came into the room.  (source)
    effacing = making herself inconspicuous
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    Glancing at her-myopic, spinsterish, effaced-I wondered how she knew she had graduated at all, and, unlike her clients, was whole and well.  (source)
    effaced = inconspicuous or unimportant
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    The tone of her prose, tender and effacing, is colored by the devotion of one who has dedicated her life to another's art.  (source)
    effacing = making herself inconspicuous or unimportant
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