Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAR, v.t. [Sax. merran, mirran, myrran, amyrran, to err, to deviate, to hinder, to lose, scatter or waste, to draw from or mislead, to corrupt or deprave; Sp. marrar, to deviate from truth and justice: marro, want, defect; Ir. mearaighim; Gr. άμαρτανω, (qu. Gr. μαραινω, L. marceo;) It. smarrire, to miss, to lose; smarrimento, a wandering.]

1. To injure by cutting off a part, or by wounding and making defective; as, to mar a tree by incision. I pray you mar no more trees by writing songs in their barks. Shak. Neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Lev. xix.
2. To injure; to hurt; to impair the strength or purity of. When brewers mar their malt with water. Shak.
3. To injure; to diminish; to interrupt. But mirth is marred, and the good cheer is lost. Dryden.
4. To injure; to deform; to disfigure. Ire, envy and despair / Marr'd all his borrow'd visage. Milton. His visage was so marred more than any man. Is. lii. Moral evil alone mars the intellectual works of God. Buckminster. [This word is not obsolete in America.]