Definition of "efface"

efface

/əˈfeɪs/

verb
third-person singular simple present effaces, present participle effacing, simple past and past participle effaced
1. (transitive) To erase (as anything impressed or inscribed upon a surface); to render illegible or indiscernible.
  Quotations
  An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.
  1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman, A.L. Burt Company (1832?), 15
2. (transitive) To cause to disappear as if by rubbing out or striking out.
  Quotations
  The bright records of the last hour effaced all the darker traces left by long and weary days.
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 254
3. (intransitive) To make oneself inobtrusive as if due to modesty or diffidence.
4. (medicine, intransitive) Of the cervix during pregnancy, to thin and stretch in preparation for labor.