Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To inflict damage, especially disfiguring damage, on.
  • transitive verb To impair the soundness, perfection, or integrity of; spoil.
  • noun A disfiguring mark; a blemish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deface or disfigure; injure by cutting, breaking, abrading, crushing, etc.; impair in form or substance.
  • To impair in quality or attributes; affect injuriously; damage the character, value, or appearance of; harm.
  • noun A blot; a blemish; an injury.
  • noun An abbreviation of March;
  • noun of maritime.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mark or blemish made by bruising, scratching, or the like; a disfigurement.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A small lake. See mere.
  • transitive verb To make defective; to do injury to, esp. by cutting off or defacing a part; to impair; to disfigure; to deface.
  • transitive verb To spoil; to ruin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To spoil, to damage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make imperfect
  • noun a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something (especially on a person's body)
  • verb destroy or injure severely
  • noun the month following February and preceding April

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English merren, from Old English mierran, merran, to impede.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English merren, from Old English mierran ("to mar, disturb, confuse; scatter, squander, waste; upset, hinder, obstruct; err"), from Proto-Germanic *marzijanan (“to disturb, hinder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mers- (“to annoy, dristurb, neglect, forget, ignore”). Cognate with Scots mer, mar ("to obstruct, impede, spoil, ruin"), Dutch marren ("to push along, delay, hinder"), German dialectal merren ("to entangle"), Icelandic merja ("to bruise, crush"), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (marzjan, "to annoy, bother, disturb, offend"), Lithuanian miršti ("to forget, lose, become oblivious, die"), Armenian մոռանալ (morranal, "to forget, fail").

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Examples

  • I couldn't help asking him whether there had been nothing to mar the pleasure of their stay in Altruria, and he answered: "Well, I don't know as you could rightly say _mar; _ it hadn't ought to have.

    Through the Eye of the Needle A Romance William Dean Howells 1878

  • For their mar is a sweet lady – a real feelin 'lady is their mar.

    Little Miss Peggy: Only a Nursery Story 1887

  • The focal point of Leiton's El desierto renace en el mar is a fish painted in earth tones that contains a series of abstract forms within its outline.

    Painting Poetry - Veronica Leiton 2007

  • The focal point of Leiton's El desierto renace en el mar is a fish painted in earth tones that contains a series of abstract forms within its outline.

    Painting Poetry - Veronica Leiton 2007

  • For instance, she says that her work entitled El desierto renace en el mar is a "visual metaphor," which was inspired by these verses of Cortázar's XVII:

    Painting Poetry - Veronica Leiton 2007

  • For instance, she says that her work entitled El desierto renace en el mar is a "visual metaphor," which was inspired by these verses of Cortázar's XVII:

    Painting Poetry - Veronica Leiton 2007

  • As the story goes, Jacob sees a beau­ti­ful woman named Rachel tend­ing sheep one day, and he goes to ask her father Laban for her hand in mar­riage.

    Last Month’s Books « Snarkmarket 2006

  • There were words to describe the stepmother/father in French: marâtre and paråtre.

    beau-fils - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Then Veronica mar was the first show i came across that has all the thing i hope for in a show, wit, a little darkness, spunk, drama, just enough romance, and actually makes you think a little.

    VERONICA MARS OFFICIALLY CANCELLED | the TV addict 2007

  • The momentary hint of a smile touched the second man's lips and vanished, but his dark eyes changed not at all, nor did the faintest hint of expression mar his smooth golden-brown skin.

    Flash ModesittJr_LE 2004

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  • I know the sorrows of the last abyss:

    I walked the cold black pools without a star;

    I lay on rock of unseen flint and spar;

    I heard the execrable serpent hiss;

    I dreamed of sun, fruit-tree, and virgin's kiss;

    I woke alone with midnight near and far,

    And everlasting hunger, keen to mar;

    - William Ellery Leonard, 'Compensation'.

    October 4, 2008

  • Code for La Chinita airport, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

    December 30, 2009