Dictionary

defeature en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈfiːtjʊə(ɹ)/ (UK)

Etymology

From defeat + -ure.

Meanings

1. Defeat, overthrow, ruin.
   • This mischiefe framd, for their first loves defeature 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

defeature en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈfiːtjʊə(ɹ)/ (UK)

Etymology

From de- + feature.

Meanings

1. Disfigurement, defacement, deformation.
   • What ruins are in me that can be found, / By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground / of my defeatures. c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
   • But no discovery was made, for no volley of reproach was uttered, and could they have looked in their mother's face they might have seen that strange defeatures were written there. 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 9:

Forms

defeature en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈfiːtjʊə(ɹ)/ (UK)

Etymology

From de- + feature.

Meanings

1. (rare) To deform.

Forms