EFFACEMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does effacement mean? 

• EFFACEMENT (noun)
  The noun EFFACEMENT has 2 senses:

1. shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor

2. withdrawing into the background; making yourself inconspicuous

  Familiarity information: EFFACEMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EFFACEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("effacement" is a kind of...):

biological process; organic process (a process occurring in living organisms)

Holonyms ("effacement" is a part of...):

childbed; confinement; labor; labour; lying-in; parturiency; travail (concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Withdrawing into the background; making yourself inconspicuous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

effacement; self-effacement

Hypernyms ("effacement" is a kind of...):

withdrawal (the act of withdrawing)

Derivation:

efface (make inconspicuous)

 Context examples 

The capacity to form A/E lesions is encoded mainly by the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) pathogenicity island.

(Pathogenic Escherichia coli Infection Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

It is further characterized by an inflammatory reaction in the glomerular capillaries and the effacement of the surrounding epithelial cell foot processes worsening protein leakage.

(Nephrotic Syndrome with Lesion of Minimal Change Glomerulonephritis, NCI Thesaurus)

The period during the first stage of labor and childbirth involved with cervical dilatation, effacement, and fetal station.

(Active Phase of Labor, NCI Thesaurus)

It is characterized by the presence of tissue destruction and effacement of the architecture of the involved tissues.

(Neoplastic Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Uterine contractions resulting in cervical change (dilation and/or effacement).

(Birthing Labor, NCI Thesaurus)

The stage of the labor and childbirth process when the uterine contractions become strong and regular with cervical effacement and complete dilation of the cervix.

(First Stage of Labor, NCI Thesaurus)

This is called effacement.

(Childbirth, Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health)

I have heard to-night similar, but even more offensive, sentiments from the person who has just sat down, and though it is a conscious effort of self-effacement to come down to that person's mental level, I will endeavor to do so, in order to allay any reasonable doubt which could possibly exist in the minds of anyone.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)