Efface, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Effaced; p. pr. & vb. n. Effacing.]
Etymology: [F. effacer; pref. es- (L. ex) + face face; prop., to destroy the face or form. See Face, and cf. Deface.]
1. To cause to disappear (as anything impresses or inscribed upon a surface) by rubbing out, striking out, etc.; to erase; to render illegible or indiscernible; as, to efface the letters on a monument, or the inscription on a coin.
2. To destroy, as a mental impression; to wear away. Efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received. Bacon.
Syn. -- To blot out; expunge; erase; obliterate; cancel; destroy. -- Efface, Deface. To deface is to injure or impair a figure; to efface is to rub out or destroy, so as to render invisible.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for efface; he lists it under cancel.
Where he writes about it:
Cancel, efface, erase, expunge, and obliterate have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. — from cancel
To cancel is, literally, to make a lattice by cross-lines, exactly our English cross out; to efface is to rub off, smooth away the face, as of an inscription; to erase is to scratch out, commonly for the purpose of writing something else in the same space; to expunge, is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to obliterate is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the Roman stylus, and rubbing out with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. — from cancel