front
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɹʌnt/
rhymes: -ʌnt
Forms: form: fronts
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
Senses: glosses: The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
examples: text: Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: The side of a building with the main entrance.
examples: text: Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.
ref: 2012 January 24, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 60:
glosses: A field of activity.
examples: text: Near-synonyms: frontperson, frontman, front man
text: Officially it's a dry-cleaning shop, but everyone knows it's a front for the mafia.
glosses: A person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
examples: text: We need to take the clothes off the line. The news reported a front is coming in from the east, and we can expect heavy rain and maybe hail.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: The interface or transition zone between two airmasses of different density, often resulting in precipitation. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates airmasses of different temperature.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The direction of the enemy.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
glosses: A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
glosses: Cheek; boldness; impudence.
examples: text: […] there was one bare breast sticking out, the tip of it disappearing into Enid's father's mouth. She had told her mother about this in perfect certainty that she had seen it. She said, "One of her fronts was stuck in Daddy's mouth."
ref: 1998, Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman, page 74:
text: She thought—imagined, really—that her, well, that her fronts were too big. She grew up, you see, in the flapper era, when it was fashionable for women to have very flat fronts.
ref: 2015, Stephen Birmingham, The Wrong Kind of Money:
text: Turning their Backs... ON FRONTS.
CONVIVIAL WAITRESS: D... Don't you want to ogle me?
SICKO MILLENNIAL: No... I hate breasts!
ref: 2019 October 15, Ward Sutton as Stan Kelly, “Wings And A Pair”, in The Onion:
glosses: A woman's breast.
examples: text: He says he likes hip-hop, but I think it's just a front.
text: You don't need to put on a front. Just be yourself.
text: with smiling fronts encountering
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]:
text: The inhabitants showed a bold front.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
glosses: An act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.
examples: text: like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front
ref: 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC:
glosses: That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
examples: text: the very head and front of my offending
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: The most conspicuous part.
examples: text: summer's front
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 102”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
text: So the faulty bridge was moved to the front of the song, creating in the process one of the most striking opening moments in Beatles music.
ref: 2012, Kenneth Womack, Todd F. Davis, Reading the Beatles, page 43:
glosses: The beginning.
glosses: A seafront or coastal promenade.
examples: text: Bless'd with his father's front, his mother's tongue.
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
text: Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.
ref: c. 1700, Matthew Prior, Seeing the Duke of Ormond's Picture at Sir Godfrey Kneller's:
glosses: The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
qualifier: hotels
glosses: The bellhop whose turn it is to answer a client's call, which is often the word "front" used as an exclamation.
examples: text: I'm saying, man, them fronts? That car? Who is you, Chiron?
ref: 2016, 1:41:25, in Barry Jenkins, director, Moonlight, spoken by Kevin (André Holland):
glosses: A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth).
Synonyms: fore
Hyponyms: topics: nautical
transport
sense: The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves
english: of a ship
translation: of a ship
word: bow
Derived terms: active front
afront
anafront
arctic front
back to front
back-to-front
battlefront
beachfront
bifront
blockfront
bowfront
breakfront
bristlefront
buttonfront
catafront
cherry blossom front
cold front
common front
company front
confront
creekfront
firefront
fly front
forefront
frontage
frontal
front and center
front and centre
front bencher
front-bencher
front bench
frontbench
front bottom
front bum
front bumper
front burner
front butt
front company
front controller pattern
frontcountry
frontcourt
front crawl
front curtain
front desk
front-desk
front door
front double biceps
front drive
front end
front-end
front-end loader
front end loader
front-end processor
front-facing
front fee
front foot
front-foot
front-footed
front foot shot
front garden
front gate
front grant
front group
front hole
frontispiece
frontless
frontlet
front lever
front-line
frontline
front line
front-load
front load
front-loaded
front loader
frontloader
front-loading
frontly
front man
frontman
front matter
front-matter
front money
frontmost
front name
frontness
front nine
front office
front of house
front-of-house
front-of-house curtain
front of mind
front of the house
frontogenesis
frontogenetic
frontolysis
front organization
frontover
front page
front-page
frontperson
front porch
front porch campaign
front projection
front projector
front range
front ring
front room
front row
front-rower
Front Royal
front run
front-runner
frontrunner
front runner
front running
front-running
front seat
frontside
front-side bus
frontsie
front slash
front squat
frontstage
front stall
front-stall
frontstretch
frontstroke
front teeth
front to back
front-toothless
front up
front vowel
front walk
front walkway
front wall
frontward
frontwards
frontways
front wheel
front-wheel drive
front-wheel skid
front wing
frontwise
frontwoman
front yard
froot
frunk
geofront
gust front
harborfront
harbourfront
home front
housefront
in front
in front of
in front of God and everyone
in front of one's nose
intertropical front
in the front row
jewelfront
katafront
lakefront
lead from the front
lightfront
Mach front
Marfa front
Mediterranean front
multifront
must get in front
netherfront
new-front
occluded front
oceanfront
on the front burner
on the front foot
out-front
overfront
parafront
polar front
popular front
punch front
put one foot in front of the other
red flag in front of a bull
refront
riverfront
sea-front
seafront
shirtfront
shirt-front
shock front
shockfront
shop front
shopfront
shorefront
shut the front door
soundfront
stationary front
storefront
stormfront
streetfront
take the front seat
time front
up-front
up-front money
up front
upfront
warfront
warm front
waterfront
wavefront
weather front
whitefront
windowfront
work front
y-front
Y-fronts
zip-front
Related terms: affront
effrontery