Pronunciations (6)
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/ˈfeɪ̯s/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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[ˈfɛ̝ɪ̯s]
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
-
/ˈfɛjs/
Pronunciation notes
- British
- Southern
- Standard
-
/feːs/
Pronunciation notes
- Ireland
- Northern-England
- Scotland
-
/ˈfæ̝ɪ̯s/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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feɪs
Noun
The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area.
- Examples
-
Wash your face with water.
That girl has a pretty face.
The monkey pressed its face against the railings.
More examples (2)
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.[…]’
One's facial expression.
Usage- Informal
- Slang
- Examples
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I could see the worry on her face.
Why the sad face?
A distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc.
Usage- Informal
- Slang
- in expressions such as make a face
- Examples
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Children! Stop making faces at each other!
The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.
Usage- Informal
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
The mouth.
Usage- Informal
- Slang
- Examples
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Shut your face!
He's always stuffing his face with chips.
Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.
Usage- Informal
- Slang
- Examples
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I'll be out in a sec. Just let me put on my face.
Public image; outward appearance.
Usage- Figurative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Our chairman is the face of this company.
He managed to show a bold face despite his embarrassment.
More examples (1)
As the film points out, the actor became known as “the face of Aids”.
Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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lose face
save face
Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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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.
An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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This is a face of her that we have not seen before.
Poverty is the ugly face of capitalism.
Presence; sight; front.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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to fly in the face of danger
to speak before the face of God
More examples (1)
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.
A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.
He better not show his face around here no more.
A familiar or well-known person; a member of a particular scene, such as the music or fashion scene.
Usage- Figurative
- Informal
- Examples
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He owned several local businesses and was a face around town.
Vincent was the very best dancer in Bay Ridge—the ultimate Face.
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.
Usage- Figurative
- Slang
- Antonyms
- Examples
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The fans cheered on the face as he made his comeback.
The frontal aspect of something.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The face of the cliff loomed above them.
The cliff I am trying to scale is the face of Mount Roraima, an enormous sandstone mesa, or tepui.
More examples (1)
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.
The frontal aspect of something. The numbered dial of a clock or watch; the clock face.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
The directed force of something.
- Examples
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They turned the boat into the face of the storm.
Any surface, especially a front or outer one.
- Examples
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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.
More examples (4)
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!
Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
- Examples
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A cube has six faces, each of which is a square.
The front surface of a bat.
The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
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).
The player character, especially as opposed to minions or other entities which might absorb damage instead of the player character.
Usage- Uncountable
- Examples
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When playing aggro decks, hit face whenever you can; it's not worth spending your resources to try to control the board.
The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.
- Examples
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a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face
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.
A typeface.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
- Examples
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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.
Verb
To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).
Usage- Transitive
- of a person or animal
- Examples
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Face the sun.
More examples (1)
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.
To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).
Usage- Transitive
- of an object
- Examples
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Turn the chair so it faces the table.
He gain'd alſo with his Forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland,
To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!
To improve the display of stock by ensuring items aren't upside down or back to front and are pulled forwards.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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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.
To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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We are facing an uncertain future.
More examples (1)
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.
To deal with (a difficult situation or person); to accept (facts, reality, etc.) even when undesirable.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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We must face the truth.
I'm going to have to face this sooner or later.
More examples (2)
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.
If he is convicted, he could face a life sentence.
To have the front in a certain direction.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The seats in the carriage faced backwards.
To have as an opponent.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Real Madrid face Juventus in the quarter-finals.
More examples (1)
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.
To be the batsman on strike.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Willoughby comes in to bowl, and it's Hobson facing.
To confront impudently; to bully.
Usage- dialectal
- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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Face not mee: thou haſt brau'd manie men, braue not me; I will neither bee fac'd nor brau'd.
More examples (1)
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.
To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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a building faced with marble
More examples (1)
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.
To line near the edge, especially with a different material.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to face the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress
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.
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.
To smoke (as, a joint or blunt) entirely by oneself.
Usage- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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He faced that blunt in ten minutes.
Adverb
Intensely.
Usage- not-comparable
- Slang
- of hallucinating from drug use
- Related words
- Examples
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He's tripping face.
She must be rolling face.
Noun
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he washed his face
I wish I had seen the look on his face when he got the news
the feelings expressed on a person's face
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a sad expression
a look of triumph
More examples (1)
an angry face
the general outward appearance of something
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the face of the city is changing
the striking or working surface of an implement
- Broader terms
a part of a person that is used to refer to a person
- Examples
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he looked out at a roomful of faces
when he returned to work he met many new faces
a surface forming part of the outside of an object
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he examined all sides of the crystal
dew dripped from the face of the leaf
More examples (1)
they travelled across the face of the continent
the part of an animal corresponding to the human face
- Broader terms
the side upon which the use of a thing depends (usually the most prominent surface of an object)
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he dealt the cards face down
a contorted facial expression
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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she made a grimace at the prospect
a specific size and style of type within a type family
- Broader terms
status in the eyes of others
- Examples
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he lost face
impudent aggressiveness
- Broader terms
- Examples
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I couldn't believe her boldness
he had the cheek to question my honesty
a vertical surface of a building or cliff
- Broader terms
Verb
deal with (something unpleasant) head on
- Examples
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You must confront your problems
He faced the terrible consequences of his mistakes
oppose, as in hostility or a competition
- Synonyms
- Examples
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You must confront your opponent
Jackson faced Smith in the boxing ring
More examples (1)
The two enemies finally confronted each other
be oriented in a certain direction, often with respect to another reference point; be opposite to
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The house looks north
My backyard look onto the pond
More examples (1)
The building faces the park
be opposite
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the facing page
the two sofas face each other
turn so as to face; turn the face in a certain direction
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Turn and face your partner now
present somebody with something, usually to accuse or criticize
- Examples
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We confronted him with the evidence
He was faced with all the evidence and could no longer deny his actions
More examples (1)
An enormous dilemma faces us
turn so as to expose the face
- Examples
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face a playing card
line the edge (of a garment) with a different material
- Broader terms
- Examples
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face the lapels of the jacket
cover the front or surface of
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The building was faced with beautiful stones