Disfigure Definition & Meaning

Origin of Disfigure

Middle English disfiguren from Old French desfigurer des- dis- figure figure (from Latin figūra shape dheigh- in Indo-European roots)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman desfigurer

From Wiktionary

The coarse cutting of his cartouches contrasts with the splendid finish of the Middle Kingdom work which they disfigure.
The style of Cassianus is slovenly, and shows no literary polish, but its directsimplicityis far superior to the rhetorical affectations which disfigure most of the writings of that age.
The tawdry and exaggerated rhetoric; the petty vanity and jealousies; the weak sentimentalism; the utter incapacity for proportioning means to ends, and for grasping the stern realities of things, which so commonly disfigure the lives and conduct even of the more honest members of his class, were wholly alien to his nature.
Hence his work, written in French, contains a far greater amount of original matter; and his personal observations made in many countries, from England to Egypt, enabled him to avoid most of the puerilities which disfigure other works of his own or of a preceding age.
Its vigour and originality have had scanty justice done to them owing to the difficulty of the subject-matter and the style, and the corruptions which still disfigure its text.

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