Etimology
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.
noun
face (plural faces)
(anatomy) The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area.
(informal or slang)
(figurative)
The frontal aspect of something.
The directed force of something.
Any surface, especially a front or outer one.
(geometry) Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron; more generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
(cricket) The front surface of a bat.
(golf) The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
(heraldry) The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
(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).
(video games, TCGs, uncountable) The player character, especially as opposed to minions or other entities which might absorb damage instead of the player character.
(mechanics) The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.
(mining) 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.
(typography) A typeface.
A mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
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. […]’
Why the sad face?
Children! Stop making faces at each other!
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 . 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 fans cheered on the face as he made his comeback.
Shut your face!
He's always stuffing his face with chips.
I'll be out in a sec. Just let me put on my face.
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”.
lose face
save face
You've got some face coming round here after what you've done.
This is the man that has the face to charge others with false citations.
This is a face of her that we have not seen before.
Poverty is the ugly face of capitalism.
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.
It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.
He better not show his face around here no more.
Coordinate term: ass
He owned several local businesses and was a face around town.
Vincent was the very best dancer in Bay Ridge—the ultimate Face.
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.
They turned the boat into the face of the storm.
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!
When playing aggro decks, hit face whenever you can; it's not worth spending your resources to try to control the board.
a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face
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.
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.
Related words
synonyms
(part of head): dial, mug, mush, phiz (obsolete), phizog (obsolete), punim, visage, pan
(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
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "baby face"): heel
hyponyms
baby face
game face
manface
pizza face
ratface
rock face
related terms
facade
façade
surface
verb
face (third-person singular simple present faces, present participle facing, simple past and past participle faced)
(transitive, of a person or animal) To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).
(transitive, of an object) To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).
(transitive) To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.
(transitive, retail) To improve the display of stock by ensuring items aren't upside down or back to front and are pulled forwards.
(transitive) To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.
(transitive) To deal with (a difficult situation or person); to accept (facts, reality, etc.) even when undesirable.
(intransitive) To have the front in a certain direction.
(transitive) To have as an opponent.
(intransitive, cricket) To be the batsman on strike.
(transitive, obsolete) To confront impudently; to bully.
(transitive) To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.
(transitive) To line near the edge, especially with a different material.
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.
(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.
(transitive, retail) To arrange the products in (a store) so that they are tidy and attractive.
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.
Turn the chair so it faces the table.
He gain'd alſo with his Forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland,
The croupier delicately faced her other two cards with the tip of his spatula. A four! She had lost!
I've put out the stock and broken down the boxes, it's just facing left to do.
We are facing an uncertain future.
Ambassador Udina: The other species are scared. They've never faced anything like this before and they don't know what to do.
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.
The seats in the carriage faced backwards.
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.
Willoughby comes in to bowl, and it's Hobson facing.
Face not mee: thou haſt brau'd manie men, braue not me; I will neither bee fac'd nor brau'd.
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.
a building faced with marble
to face the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress
Hyponym: spotface
In my first job, I learned how to operate a till and to face the store to high standards.
Related words
synonyms
(position oneself/itself towards):
(have its front closest to):
(deal with): confront, deal with
related terms
face down
face facts
face the music
face to face
face up to
in your face