face
Part of speech: noun
verb
adv
Morphological type: simple
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Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti
Proto-Italic *θakjō
Proto-Italic *fakjō
Late Latin faciō
Proto-Italic *-jēs
Late Latin -iēs
Late Latin faciēs
Late Latin facia
Old French facebor.
Middle English face
English face
From Middle English face, from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“form, appearance”). Doublet of facies. Displaced native onlete (“face, countenance, appearance”), anleth (“face”), from Old English anwlite, andwlita, compare German Antlitz; Old English ansīen (“face”), Middle English neb (“face, nose”) (from Old English nebb), Middle English ler, leor, leer (“face, cheek, countenance”) (from Old English hlēor), and non-native Middle English vis (“face, appearance, look”) (from Old French vis) and Middle English chere (“face”) from Old French chere.
In the sense of face as in reputation, influenced by Chinese 面子 (miànzi) or 臉／脸 (liǎn), both of which mean literally the front of the head and metaphorically one's public image. See lose face.
Inflected forms:
form: faces
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: faces
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: facing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: faced
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: faced
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area.
pos: noun
examples: That girl has a pretty face.
The monkey pressed its face against the railings.
It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’
gloss: One's facial expression.
pos: noun
tags: informal
slang
examples: Why the sad face?
gloss: A distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc.
pos: noun
tags: informal
slang
examples: Children! Stop making faces at each other!
gloss: The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.
pos: noun
tags: informal
slang
examples: MAKE Money-wholesale U.S. stamps—buy mint stamps below face. Be a dealer. Send $1.00 for two giant catalogs, refunded first order. Von Stein, Bernardsville, N.J.
With certain exceptions for valuable stamps, dealers and many collectors are only willing to offer a percentage of face (80-90%). So instead, Lloyd took the sheets to work and posted a message asking if anyone wanted to buy sheets of old U.S. stamps at face.
Talking about buying below face, I've bought a lot of rolled coins at below face. I'm not going to pay face just to drag them to the bank and deposit them.
gloss: The mouth.
pos: noun
tags: informal
slang
examples: Shut your face!
He's always stuffing his face with chips.
gloss: Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.
pos: noun
tags: informal
slang
examples: I'll be out in a sec. Just let me put on my face.
gloss: Public image; outward appearance.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Our chairman is the face of this company.
He managed to show a bold face despite his embarrassment.
As the film points out, the actor became known as “the face of Aids”.
gloss: Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: lose face
save face
gloss: Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: You've got some face coming round here after what you've done.
a. 1694, John Tillotson, Preface to The Works
This is the man that has the face to charge others with false citations.
gloss: An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: This is a face of her that we have not seen before.
Poverty is the ugly face of capitalism.
gloss: Presence; sight; front.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: to fly in the face of danger
to speak before the face of God
The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
gloss: A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.
He better not show his face around here no more.
gloss: A familiar or well-known person; a member of a particular scene, such as the music or fashion scene.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: He owned several local businesses and was a face around town.
Vincent was the very best dancer in Bay Ridge—the ultimate Face.
gloss: A headlining wrestler with a persona embodying heroic or virtuous traits and who is regarded as a "good guy", especially one who is handsome and well-conditioned; a baby face.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
slang
examples: The fans cheered on the face as he made his comeback.
gloss: The frontal aspect of something.
pos: noun
examples: The face of the cliff loomed above them.
Then, the torpedo bombers arrived, but, unlike those that had dealt Hornet such a heavy blow, these split their attention between Enterprise, South Dakota, Portland, and the rather-bewildered destroyer USS Smith, which got a damaged Kate and its torpedo to the face for its trouble.
gloss: The frontal aspect of something.
pos: noun
examples: An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.
gloss: The directed force of something.
pos: noun
examples: They turned the boat into the face of the storm.
gloss: Any surface, especially a front or outer one.
pos: noun
examples: Put a big sign on each face of the building that can be seen from the road.
They climbed the north face of the mountain.
She wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth.
But there went vp a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face.
Captain Anderson: He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of geth at his command. And he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy!
gloss: Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
pos: noun
examples: A cube has six faces, each of which is a square.
gloss: The front surface of a bat.
pos: noun
gloss: The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
pos: noun
gloss: The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
pos: noun
gloss: The side of the card that shows its value (as opposed to the back side, which looks the same on all cards of the deck).
pos: noun
gloss: The player character, especially as opposed to minions or other entities which might absorb damage instead of the player character.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: When playing aggro decks, hit face whenever you can; it's not worth spending your resources to try to control the board.
gloss: The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.
pos: noun
examples: a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face
gloss: The exposed surface of the mineral deposit where it is being mined. Also the exposed end surface of a tunnel where digging may still be in progress.
pos: noun
gloss: A typeface.
pos: noun
examples: For the typophiles reading this, the book is attractively designed. It is set in Classic Aldine, a handsome face akin to the more popular Palatino. The designer's work is unfortunately marred by indifferent printing.
gloss: A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
pos: noun
examples: The Lord make his face shine vpon thee, and be gracious vnto thee:
My face will I turne also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it and defile it.
gloss: To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Face the sun.
Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
Smooth and slender and naked, Mary Rittersdorf faced her husband.
gloss: To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Turn the chair so it faces the table.
He gain'd alſo with his Forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland,
gloss: To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!
gloss: To improve the display of stock by ensuring items aren't upside down or back to front and are pulled forwards.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I've put out the stock and broken down the boxes, it's just facing left to do.
In my first job, I learned how to operate a till and to face the store to high standards.
gloss: To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We are facing an uncertain future.
The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.
Ambassador Udina: The other species are scared. They've never faced anything like this before and they don't know what to do.
gloss: To deal with (a difficult situation or person); to accept (facts, reality, etc.) even when undesirable.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I'm going to have to face this sooner or later.
I'll face / This tempest, and deserve the name of king.
It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today […].
According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
Network Rail doesn't expect the line through Carmont to open for around a month, as it faces the mammoth task of recovering the two power cars and four coaches from ScotRail's wrecked train, repairing bridge 325, stabilising earthworks around the landslip, and replacing the track.
I'm breaking down, breaking down at the thought of you
I keep breaking down, breaking down over you again
I can't face, can't face that you’re happier
And so, I'm stuck rotting six feet under
gloss: To have the front in a certain direction.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The seats in the carriage faced backwards.
gloss: To have as an opponent.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Real Madrid face Juventus in the quarter-finals.
And a further boost to England's qualification prospects came after the final whistle when Wales recorded a 2-1 home win over group rivals Montenegro, who Capello's men face in their final qualifier.
gloss: To be the batsman on strike.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Willoughby comes in to bowl, and it's Hobson facing.
gloss: To confront impudently; to bully.
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
obsolete
transitive
examples: Face not mee: thou haſt brau'd manie men, braue not me; I will neither bee fac'd nor brau'd.
That was it. Faced by my literary hero. Nicely faced though, he was charming throughout. And it was just as I suspected; there was no way in Hell Kurt Vonnegut would acquiesce to dinner with a bunch of moon-eyed, gooey strangers.
gloss: To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: a building faced with marble
These upper walls seem mainly to have been formed, not of sun- or fire-baked bricks, as at Gournia or Palaikastro, but of clay or rubble, coated with plaster or faced with gypsum slabs.
gloss: To line near the edge, especially with a different material.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to face the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress
gloss: To cover with better, or better appearing, material than the mass consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea, a barrel of sugar, etc.
pos: verb
gloss: To make the surface of (anything) flat or smooth; to dress the face of (a stone, a casting, etc.); especially, in turning, to shape or smooth the flat (transverse) surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical (axial) surface.
pos: verb
gloss: To smoke (as, a joint or blunt) entirely by oneself.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: He faced that blunt in ten minutes.
gloss: Intensely.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
slang
examples: He's tripping face.
She must be rolling face.
Related words: facade
façade
surface
Derived words: about face
about-face
accept at face value
aface
antiface
arse about face
arseface
assface
at the coal face
baby-face
babyface
backface
bash someone's face in
beat one's face
bicycle face
biface
bitchface
bitchy resting face
blackface
Blackface
blackfaced
black in the face
blockface
blow up in one's face
Boaty McBoatface
boldface
boltface
brazen-face
breakface
break someone's face
breech face
brownface
butter face
buttface
carb-face
catface
chalkface
chitty-face
chocolate face
cliff face
clitface
clock face
Clock Face
clock-face timetable
close the face
clubface
coalface
cockface
code face
counterface
crapface
crater face
cuntface
cut off one's nose to spite one's face
danger triangle of the face
demon face syndrome
desired face
dickface
dish-face
dogface
dollface
door-in-the-face technique
dorkface
doucheface
doughface
downface
duckface
egg on one's face
eigenface
enantioface
enface
exoface
faceable
faceache
face-ache
face ague
face artist
face as long as a fiddle
face-blind
face blindness
facebook
facebow
face brick
facebuster
face button
face cam
facecam
face cap
face card
facecare
face-centered
face cheek
face claim
facecloth
face cloth
face control
face covering
face cream
facecrime
face diaper
face-down
face down
face first
facefirst
face-first
face flannel
face fly
face for radio
face for television
face fuck
facefuck
face fucking
faceful
face fungus
faceguard
facehole
facehoof
faceism
face job
facekini
faceless
facelet
facelick
facelift
face lift
face-lift
facelike
face like a bag of spanners
face like a fiddle
face like a slapped arse
face like a slapped ass
face like a slapped bum
face like a smacked arse
face like a smacked ass
face like a smacked bum
face like the back end of a bus
face like thunder
facelock
facemail
face-maker
facemaking
face man
face mask
facemask
face mask penalty
face-melter
face-melting
face off
faceoff
face-off
face only a mother could love
face out
face pack
facepaint
face paint
face painting
face-palm
face palm
facepalm
facepaw
facepic
facepiece
face piece
faceplant
face-plant
face-plate
face powder
faceprint
face pubes
face reading
face reveal
face-saver
facesaving
face-saving
facesheet
face shield
faceshield
face-sit
facesitter
facesitting
face-sitting
face-stalking
face swap
face tank
face that only a mother could love
face that would stop a clock
face the facts
face time
face to face
face-to-face
face turn
face up
faceup
face-up
face validity
face value
face-value
faceward
facewards
facewash
face washer
facewear
facewipe
facewise
face without makeup
facework
faceworker
facial
facie
fagface
faggot-face
faggotface
fall flat on one's face
fall on one's face
falseface
false face
fartface
fatface
feed one's face
fiddle face
fill one's face
fly in the face of
foreface
foxface
freckleface
Friday face
the face of the earth
frowny face
fuck face
fuck-face
fuckface
full-face
gasface
gayface
get out of my face
get out of someone's face
get up in someone's face
give face
go face
goldenface
hammer face
hardface
hatchet face
hatchet-faced
have a face on
have got a face on
have got the face on
heartface
heel-face turn
hemiface
Hippocratic face
hog-face
hog's face
horseface
hyperface
in face of
in one's face
in someone's face
interface
in the face of
in-yer-face
jerkface
Jewface
just another pretty face
Kangshung Face
kikeface
lamellar face
laugh in someone's face
laugh on the other side of one's face
laugh on the wrong side of one's face
left face
Leopards Eating Faces Party
Leopards Eating People's Faces Party
lightface
long face
look in the face
lose face
loss of face
manface
Mar-a-Lago face
mayonnaise face
midface
monkeyface
monkey-face tree
Mooney face test
moon-face
moon face
muffin-face
multiface
nonface
not just another pretty face
not just a pretty face
o-face
O face
off one's face
off the face of the earth
on the face of
on the face of it
on the face of the earth
open-face
open the face
outface
out of one's face
overface
Ozempic face
paleface
pale face
pieface
pigface
pinkface
pissface
pizza-face
plain as the nose on one's face
po-face
poker face
pole face
pooface
pram face
pram-face
pretty-face wallaby
prickface
pudding face
pukeface
pull a face
put a brave face on
put a good face on
put a smile on one's face
put on a brave face
rape face
ratface
rearrange someone's face
redface
red face test
red in the face
resting bitch face
resting face
resting Polish face
rich face
right-about-face
right-face
right face
rip someone's face off
Rocky Face
rub one's face with a brass candlestick
rub someone's face in
run one's face
same face syndrome
save face
save someone's face
scarface
scumface
set one's face against
shitface
shit-faced
shoreface
show one's face
shut one's face
sideface
slantface
slap in the face
sleeveface
slimeface
slipface
slip face
slutface
smack in the face
smash someone's face in
smiley face
smock-face
smoker's face
snotface
snowface
socialism with a human face
someone's face doesn't fit
soy face
spit in someone's face
stare someone in the face
straighten one's face
straightface
straight face
straight-face test
straight face test
stuff one's face
subface
suck face
superface
take at face value
take something to the face
talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening
tardface
throw something in someone's face
to one's face
to someone's face
transface
trollface
twi-faced
type face
underface
unface
uniface
until one is blue in the face
volte face
volte-face
wankface
wartface
wash its face
watch face
what's-his-face
wheyface
whistling face syndrome
whiteface
whitefaced
wipe the smile off someone's face
womanface
workface
written all over someone's face
written in someone's face
yellowface
zitface
face facts
face the music
face up to
let's face it
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: etupuoli
lang: Finnish
word: etuseinä
lang: Finnish
word: eturinne
lang: Māori
word: pohonga
lang: Māori
word: taparerenga
lang: Spanish
word: frente