front
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɹʌnt/
rhymes: -ʌnt
Forms: form: fronts
form: fronting
form: fronted
form: fronted
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
Senses: examples: text: The great gate fronting to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
text: The door fronted on a narrow run, like a footbridge over a gully, that filled the gap between the house wall and the edge of the bank.
ref: 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 35:
text: They emerged atop the broad curving steps that fronted on the Street of the Sisters, near the foot of Visenya's Hill.
ref: 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 312:
text: The palazzo has always fronted on a bus stop—but this putative man of the people has kindly put an end to that public service.
ref: 2010, Ingrid D Rowland, "The Siege of Rome", New York Review of Books, Blog, 26 March
glosses: To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
examples: text: After saluting her, he led her to a couch that fronted us, where they both sat down, and the young Genoese helped her to a glass of wine, with some Naples biscuit on a salver.
ref: 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
english: Fanny Hill
translation: Fanny Hill
text: […]down they ran into the dining-room, which fronted the lane, in quest of this wonder; it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate.
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: She sat on a seat under the alders in the cricket ground, and fronted the evening.
ref: 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: To face, be opposite to.
examples: text: Know you not Gaueston hath store of golde,
Which may in Ireland purchase him such friends,
As he will front the mightiest of vs all,
ref: 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
text: What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: those that have willed to attaine to some greater excellence, have not beene content, at home, and at rest to expect the rigors of fortune[…]; but have rather gone to meet and front her before, and witting-earnestly cast themselves to the triall of the hardest difficulties.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: But Dagley immediately fronted him, and Fag at his heels growled low […].
ref: 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Part IV, chapter 39:
text: On returning home, he fronted his servant about this grisly discovery.
ref: 2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 217:
glosses: To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
examples: text: Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.
ref: 2001, Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation, page 148:
glosses: To adorn with, at the front; to put on the front.
examples: text: The velar plosives are often fronted through the influence of a following front vowel, and retracted through the influence of a following back vowel.
ref: 2005, Paul Skandera, Peter Burleigh, A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology, page 48:
text: Finally, the pretonic -e- of this *tsengòrra would have been fronted, yielding *tsingòrra.
ref: 2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 214:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
glosses: To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
examples: text: […] in the clause, only the adjective may be fronted; but if both a past participle and a verbal particle are present, either may be fronted. Topicalization, in which maximal projections are fronted to express pragmatics such as contrast, emphasis, ...
ref: 2001, Arthur J. Holmer, Jan-Olof Svantesson, Åke Viberg, Proceedings of the 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics:
text: A problem facing any syntactic analysis of hyperbaton is that nonconstituent strings are fronted […] In cases where the adjective is fronted with the determiner, the determiner is not doubled […]
ref: 2010, George Melville Bolling, Bernard Bloch, Language:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence (or series of adjectives, etc).
examples: text: Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.
ref: 2007, Harold Robbins, A Stone for Danny Fisher, page 183:
glosses: To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
examples: text: Ray Winstone is fronting a campaign for the Football Association that aims to stop pushy parents shouting abuse at their children during the grassroots football season.
ref: 2009 September 1, Mark Sweney, The Guardian:
glosses: To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
examples: text: Fronting can be understood as a representation of who controls the system, that is, the person to whom you are speaking. Emilia was typically the person fronting her system.
ref: 2018, Eric Yarbrough, Transgender Mental Health, page 160:
qualifier: multiplicity
glosses: Of an alter in a person with multiplicity (especially in dissociative identity disorder): to be the currently actively presenting member of (a system), in control of the person's body.
examples: text: I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.
ref: 2004, Danielle Steele, Ransom, page 104:
glosses: To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
examples: text: So when I tell people where I'm from and check their reactions, I know in my heart I'm just frontin’. Because the way and where I lived then pales when compared to the way and where many youths are living today.
ref: 1993 November 19, Bobby Hill, “Mad Real”, in Washington City Paper, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2013:
text: What's with these homies dissin' my girl? / Why do they gotta front?
ref: 1994, Rivers Cuomo, “Buddy Holly”, performed by Weezer:
text: No matter how hard she fronted in the coming years, Carmiesha could never forget that she had given birth and had a child in this world. Even when she tried not to remember, she still couldn’t forget.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 101:
text: Boy don't try to front, / I-I know just-just what you are, are-are.
ref: 2008, Briscoe/Akinyemi, ‘Womanizer’
text: You know damned straight what this is about, or you ain't as smart as you been frontin'.
ref: 2008, Markus Naerheim, The City, page 531:
synonyms: put on airs
feign
glosses: To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
examples: text: You think that you can front when revelation comes? / You can't front on that
ref: 1992, “So What'cha Want”, performed by The Beastie Boys:
glosses: To deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).
examples: text: to front court
glosses: To appear before.
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: To act cocky, disrespectful and aggressive; to confront (someone).
Derived terms: front off
front on
front oneself off