face

From Middle English face, from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“form, appearance”). Doublet of facies.

Displaced native Middle English 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.

• enPR: fās, IPA^(key): /feɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• (Fiji) IPA^(key): /feːs/
• Hyphenation: face
• Rhymes: -eɪs

face (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) 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.

   The monkey pressed its face against the railings.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess‎:

     ‘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. […]’

2. One's facial expression.

   Why the sad face?

3. (in expressions such as 'make a face') A distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc.

   Children! Stop making faces at each other!

4. Public image; outward appearance.

   Our chairman is the face of this company.

   He managed to show a bold face despite his embarrassment.

5. The frontal aspect of something.

   The face of the cliff loomed above them.

   • 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 4 December 2022, retrieved 11 December 2022, 17:16 from the start:

     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.

6. An aspect of the character or nature of someone or something.

   This is a face of her that we have not seen before.

   Poverty is the ugly face of capitalism.

7. (figurative) Presence; sight; front.

   to fly in the face of danger

   to speak before the face of God

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794, page 01:

     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.

8. The directed force of something.

   They turned the boat into the face of the storm.

9. Good reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige. (See lose face, save face).
10. Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.

    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.

11. 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.

    They climbed the north face of the mountain.

    She wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth.

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 2:6:

      But there went vp a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

    • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “Canto LXVIII”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. , London: John Murray,, (please specify the stanza number):

      Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face.

    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:

      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!

12. (geometry) Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
13. The numbered dial of a clock or watch; the clock face.
14. (slang) The mouth.

    Shut your face!

    He's always stuffing his face with chips.

15. (slang) Makeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.

    I'll be out in a sec. Just let me put on my face.

16. (metonymically) A person; the self; (reflexively, objectifying) oneself.

    It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.

    He better not show his face around here no more.

    Coordinate term: ass (see ass § Usage notes)

17. (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.

    • 1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine‎:

      Vincent was the very best dancer in Bay Ridge—the ultimate Face.

18. (professional wrestling, 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.

19. (cricket) The front surface of a bat.
20. (golf) The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
21. (card games) 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).
22. (heraldry) The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
23. The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.

    a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face

24. (typography) A typeface.
25. A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Numbers 6:25:

      The Lord make his face shine vpon thee, and be gracious vnto thee:

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Ezekiel 7:22:

      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.

26. (informal) The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.
    • 1966 November, “Classified Opportunity Mart: Stamp Collecting [advertisement]”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 189, number 5, page 229:

      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.

    • 1995 January 18, Ed Jackson, “Re: US sheets -- Sell for how much?”, in rec.collecting.stamps, Usenet‎:

      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.

    • 2005 March 16, Cliff, “Re: This sounds like a newbie question....”, in rec.collecting.coins, Usenet‎:

      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.

• (part of head): dial, mug, mush, phiz (obsolete), phizog (obsolete), punim, visage
• (facial expression): countenance, expression, facial expression, look, visage, see also Thesaurus:facial expression and Thesaurus:countenance
• (the front or outer surface): foreside
• (public image): image, public image, reputation
• (of a polyhedron): facet (different specialised meaning in mathematical use), surface (not in mathematical use)
• (slang: mouth): cakehole, gob, piehole, trap, see also Thesaurus:mouth
• (slang: wrestling): good guy, hero

• (baby face): heel

• → Danish: fjæs
• → Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fjes
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: fjes
• → Swedish: fjäs

face (third-person singular simple present faces, present participle facing, simple past and past participle faced)

1. (transitive, of a person or animal) To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).

   Face the sun.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:

     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.

2. (transitive, of an object) To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).

   Turn the chair so it faces the table.

   • 1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , OCLC 946735472, page 72:

     He gain'd alſo with his Forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland,

3. (transitive) To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
   • 1963, Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service

     The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!

4. (transitive) To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.

   We are facing an uncertain future.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Citadel:

     Ambassador Udina: The other species are scared. They've never faced anything like this before and they don't know what to do. They want us to step forward. They believe in humanity because of you.
     Ambassador Udina: Your ruthless pursuit of Saren and the geth, your defiance of the Council -- that's what humans are capable of! That's how we can defeat the Reapers!
     Ambassador Udina: The others will follow us, Shepard. They know we're their only hope. We will have a human Council with a human Chairman.

5. (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.

   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 6484883, (please specify the page number):

     I'll face / This tempest, and deserve the name of king.

   • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:

     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 […].

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     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.

   • 2020 August 26, “Network News: Mid-September before line reopens, says Network Rail”, in Rail, page 10:

     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.

6. (intransitive) To have the front in a certain direction.

   The seats in the carriage faced backwards.

7. (transitive) To have as an opponent.

   Real Madrid face Juventus in the quarter-finals.

   • 2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:

     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.

8. (intransitive, cricket) To be the batsman on strike.

   Willoughby comes in to bowl, and it's Hobson facing.

9. (transitive, obsolete) To confront impudently; to bully.
   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii], page 224, column 2:

     Face not mee: thou haſt brau'd manie men, braue not me; I will neither bee fac'd nor brau'd.

10. (transitive) To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.

    a building faced with marble

11. (transitive) To line near the edge, especially with a different material.

    to face the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress

12. 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.
13. (engineering) 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.

    Hyponym: spotface

14. (transitive, retail) To arrange the products in (a store) so that they are tidy and attractive.

    In my first job, I learned how to operate a till and to face the store to high standards.

• (position oneself/itself towards):
• (have its front closest to):
• (deal with): confront, deal with

• in-your-face

• Face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (geometry) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (hieroglyph) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (mining) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Face (sociological concept) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• MathWorld article on geometrical faces
• Faces in programming
• JavaServer Faces
• face on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• CAFE, cafe, café, ecaf

• IPA^(key): /fʌˈħe/
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

facé (causative facisé)

1. (intransitive) boil
2. (intransitive) ferment

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “face”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎, Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 280

• 飛士／飞士

From English face.

face

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) face (reputation; dignity)

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

• Face

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɑse/, [ˈfɑs̠e̞]
• Rhymes: -ɑse
• Syllabification^(key): fa‧ce

face

1. (informal) Clipping of Facebook.

• Facebook is generally pronounced approximately following the English pronunciation (/feispu:k/), while this term is not.

• insta

From Middle French and Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”).

• IPA^(key): /fas/

• Audio

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• Homophones: faces, fasce, fasse, fassent, fasses
• Rhymes: -as

face f (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face
2. surface, side
3. (geometry) face
4. head (of a coin)

• aspect
• figure
• surface
• tête
• visage

• “face”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• café

From Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”).

face f (plural facis)

1. face

face

1. present of facer
2. imperative of facer

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Hyphenation: fà‧ce

Learned borrowing from Latin facem (“torch, firebrand”).

face f (plural faci)

1. (poetic) torch

   Synonyms: fiaccola, torcia

   • 1827, Ugo Foscolo, Le grazie‎, Felice Le Monnier, published 1848, page 42:

     […] vide […] ¶ Aiace […] ¶ Fra le dardanie faci arso e splendente ¶ Scagliar rotta la spada, e trarsi l'elmo, ¶ E fulminare immobile col guardo ¶ Ettore che perplesso ivi si tenne

     She saw Ajax, burning and shining among the Trojan torches, throw away the broken sword, and take off his helm, and, immobile, stare down Hector, who stood there perplexed.

2. (poetic, by extension) light

   Synonyms: luce, lume, splendore

• face in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

face

1. (archaic, poetic) Alternative form of fa, third-person singular present indicative of fare

face

1. ablative singular of fax

face

1. second-person singular present imperative active of faciō

Borrowed from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Classical Latin faciēs.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaːs(ə)/

face (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face
   • 14^th C., Chaucer, General Prologue

     Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.

     Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hue.

• visage

• English: face, fyess (Northumbrian) (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: face
• Yola: faace

• “fāce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

face

1. Alternative form of fass

• fache (northern)

From Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“face, shape”).

face f (oblique plural faces, nominative singular face, nominative plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Le chief li desarme et la face.

     He exposed his head and his face.

   • c. 1155, Wace, Le Roman de Brut:

     Li rois regarda li deus freres
     A cors bien fais, a faces cleres

     The king looked at the two brothers
     With their well-built bodies and clear faces

   • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 148 of this essay:

     Les signes subsequens est face enflée […]

     the symptoms are the following: swollen face […]

• vis (more common)
• visage
• volt

• Middle French: face
  • French: face
• Norman: fache, fach
• → Middle English: face (see there for further descendants)

From Old Portuguese façe, faz, from Latin faciēs.

• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

face f (plural faces)

1. (anatomy, geometry) face

   Synonyms: cara, rosto

2. (anatomy) the cheek

   Synonym: bochecha

• “façe” in Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval.

From Latin facere, present active infinitive of faciō[1], from Proto-Italic *fakiō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, set”). The verb's original past participle was fapt, from factum, but was changed and replaced several centuries ago. An alternative third-person simple perfect, fece, from fecit, was also found in some dialects.[2] The meaning "to cost" is likely a calque of Greek κάνω (káno).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -at͡ʃe
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce

• Audio

  (file)

a face (third-person singular present face, past participle făcut) 3rd conj.

1. (transitive) do, make
2. (reflexive) to be made, to be done
3. to cost

• afacere
• facere
• făcător
• preface

• desface
• fapt

• înfăptui
• face dragoste

• face in DEX online - Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈfaθe/ [ˈfa.θe]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /ˈfase/ [ˈfa.se]
• (Spain) Rhymes: -aθe
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -ase
• Syllabification: fa‧ce

face

1. third-person singular present indicative of facer