Effacing

Effacing describes the act of causing something to disappear; to wipe out, remove, or obliterate. It can pertain to physical objects or abstract concepts like memories, feelings, or one's public profile. effacing often implies a deliberate or intentional action to make something inconspicuous, unimportant, or forgotten. The process can be gradual or sudden and can relate to self-effacement, meaning to make oneself or one's actions unnoticeable, or to removing evidence of something. The context determines whether the effacing is seen as positive, like removing hurtful memories, or negative, like destroying evidence.

Effacing meaning with examples

• The artist, seeking anonymity, made a point of effacing his signature from his earlier works, preferring his art to speak for itself. This act aimed to reduce his public image and allow viewers to focus solely on his craft, detached from any personality.
• Time, in its relentless march forward, slowly effaces the lines on our faces and the memories of yesterday. The passing years gradually blur the sharpest recollections of childhood, leaving only faint echoes of events gone by.
• The regime, in an attempt to rewrite history, sought to efface all traces of the previous government's influence, destroying monuments and altering textbooks to control the narrative and solidify its power.
• Dealing with the trauma of the war, the therapist guided the patient to slowly efface the most painful memories through talk therapy and techniques, allowing him to process them, and move towards recovery and peace.
• After her embarrassing performance on stage, she was hoping to efface the incident from everyone's memory. She avoided her friends in the week after, mortified at the attention her public blunder had generated.