Defacement

Defacement is a term used in heraldry and vexillology to refer to the addition of a symbol to a background. Thus, for example, the blue canton (flag) of the national flag of the United States is correctly described as a blue background defaced by fifty white five-pointed stars.

The term does not imply any insult to the original background, as the symbol is usually used for differentiation of the shield or flag from that of another owner.

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In common usage, to deface something refers to the act of marking or removing the part of an object (especially images, be they on the page, in illustrative art or as sculpture) designed to hold the viewers attention. Example acts of defacement could include scoring a book cover with a blade, splashing paint over a painting in a gallery, smashing the nose of a sculpted bust. Iconoclasm led to the defacement of many religious artworks.

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In computing, web site defacement is usually the substitution of the original .