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FACE

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

face¹

  • /ˈfeɪ̯s/ Canada, US, UK
  • [ˈfɛ̝ɪ̯s] Canada, US, UK
  • /ˈfɛjs/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /feːs/ Ireland, Northern England, Scotland
  • /ˈfæ̝ɪ̯s/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -eɪs

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti

Proto-Italic *θakjō

Proto-Italic *fakjō

Latin faciō

Proto-Italic *-jēs

Latin -iēs

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.

noun faces

  1. The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area. That girl has a pretty face.
  2. informal, slang One's facial expression. Why the sad face?
  3. informal, slang A distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc. Children! Stop making faces at each other!
  4. informal, slang The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value. 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.
  5. informal, slang The mouth. Shut your face!
  6. informal, slang Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application. I'll be out in a sec. Just let me put on my face.
  7. figuratively Public image; outward appearance. Our chairman is the face of this company.
  8. figuratively Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige. lose face
  9. figuratively Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery. You've got some face coming round here after what you've done.
  10. figuratively An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something. This is a face of her that we have not seen before.
  11. figuratively Presence; sight; front. to fly in the face of danger
  12. figuratively A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself. It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.
  13. figuratively, informal A familiar or well-known person; a member of a particular scene, such as the music or fashion scene. He owned several local businesses and was a face around town.
  14. figuratively, slang 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. The fans cheered on the face as he made his comeback.
  15. The frontal aspect of something. The face of the cliff loomed above them.
  16. The numbered dial of a clock or watch; the clock face. 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.
  17. The directed force of something. They turned the boat into the face of the storm.
  18. Any surface, especially a front or outer one. Put a big sign on each face of the building that can be seen from the road.
  19. Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension. A cube has six faces, each of which is a square.
  20. The front surface of a bat.
  21. The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
  22. The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
  23. 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).
  24. uncountable The player character, especially as opposed to minions or other entities which might absorb damage instead of the player character. When playing aggro decks, hit face whenever you can; it's not worth spending your resources to try to control the board.
  25. The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end. a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face
  26. 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.
  27. A typeface. 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.
  28. A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger. The Lord make his face shine vpon thee, and be gracious vnto thee:

verb faces · facing · faced

  1. transitive To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something). Face the sun.
  2. transitive To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else). Turn the chair so it faces the table.
  3. transitive To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction. The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!
  4. transitive To improve the display of stock by ensuring items aren't upside down or back to front and are pulled forwards. I've put out the stock and broken down the boxes, it's just facing left to do.
  5. transitive To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect. We are facing an uncertain future.
  6. transitive To deal with (a difficult situation or person); to accept (facts, reality, etc.) even when undesirable. I'm going to have to face this sooner or later.
  7. intransitive To have the front in a certain direction. The seats in the carriage faced backwards.
  8. transitive To have as an opponent. Real Madrid face Juventus in the quarter-finals.
  9. intransitive To be the batsman on strike. Willoughby comes in to bowl, and it's Hobson facing.
  10. dialectal, obsolete, transitive To confront impudently; to bully. Face not mee: thou haſt brau'd manie men, braue not me; I will neither bee fac'd nor brau'd.
  11. transitive To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon. a building faced with marble
  12. transitive To line near the edge, especially with a different material. to face the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. slang, transitive To smoke (as, a joint or blunt) entirely by oneself. He faced that blunt in ten minutes.

adverb

  1. not comparable, slang Intensely. He's tripping face.

FACE²

phrase

  1. mnemonic A mnemonic phrase to help remember the order of the four spaces of a musical treble clef in order from the bottom to the top.

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