Etimology
From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
noun
front (countable and uncountable, plural fronts)
The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
The side of a building with the main entrance.
A field of activity.
A person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
(meteorology) The interface or transition zone between two airmasses of different density, often resulting in precipitation. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates airmasses of different temperature.
(military) An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
(military) The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
(military) The direction of the enemy.
(military) When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
(historical) A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
(dated) Cheek; boldness; impudence.
(informal) An act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.
(historical) That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
The most conspicuous part.
The beginning.
(UK) A seafront or coastal promenade.
(obsolete) The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
(slang, hotels, dated) The bellhop whose turn it is to answer a client's call, which is often the word "front" used as an exclamation.
(slang, in the plural) A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth).
Examples
Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.
Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.
Officially it's a dry-cleaning shop, but everyone knows it's a front for the mafia.
We need to take the clothes off the line. The news reported a front is coming in from the east, and we can expect heavy rain and maybe hail.
He says he likes hip-hop, but I think it's just a front.
You don't need to put on a front. Just be yourself.
with smiling fronts encountering
The inhabitants showed a bold front.
like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front
the very head and front of my offending
summer's front
So the faulty bridge was moved to the front of the song, creating in the process one of the most striking opening moments in Beatles music.
Bless'd with his father's front, his mother's tongue.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.
His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.
I'm saying, man, them fronts? That car? Who is you, Chiron?
Related words
synonyms
fore
antonyms
back
rear
hyponyms
(The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves): (nautical) bow (of a ship)
related terms
affront
effrontery
adjective
front (comparative further front, superlative furthest front)
Located at or near the front.
(comparable, phonetics) Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the front of the mouth, near the hard palate (most often describing a vowel).
Closest or nearest, of a set of futures contracts which expire at particular times, or of the times they expire; (typically, the front month or front year is the next calendar month or year after the current one).
Examples
The front runner was thirty meters ahead of her nearest competitor.
The English word dress has a front vowel in most dialects.
Synonym: prompt
Antonym: back
Contracts are available for every month in the front year but do not extend over a year.
Contract months : March, June, September and December[.] Minimum price fluctuation : 0.005 Index Point equivalent to USD 12.50 per tick for the front-year Eurodollar futures […]
The contract that will expire next is called the front contract or front month contract. The other contracts are called the back contracts. In financial and industrial commodities, traders mostly trade only the front month contract.
Buying the security for the earlier month, and owning it for the period ending with the latter settlement date.
To a speculator, a front month future is attractive. Refer to Figure 6-1 to see that both the open interest and the trading volume of the front-month contract exceeds that of all the other contracts.
An alternative definition would estimate the slope using the front futures contract and the contract expiring 1 year after .
When the back contract has a higher PVBP than the front contract, fewer back contracts need to be bought or sold than front contracts are sold or bought. The PVBP-neutral roll ratio is simply the ratio of the front and back contracts […]
This means that in absolute terms, the number of transactions that is triggered by external sources is highest for the front contract of corn.
Going long the front futures contract and holding it a month in the example now produces a loss of $1 per barrel as the futures market converges to spot. And as long as the market is in a carry, this loss will happen continuously over […]
Related words
synonyms
(located near the front): first, lead, fore
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "located near the front"): back, last, rear
(antonym(s) of "phonetics"): back
verb
front (third-person singular simple present fronts, present participle fronting, simple past and past participle fronted)
(intransitive, dated) To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
(transitive) To face, be opposite to.
(transitive) To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
(transitive) To adorn with, at the front; to put on the front.
(phonetics, transitive, intransitive) To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
(linguistics, transitive) To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence (or series of adjectives, etc).
(intransitive, slang) To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
(transitive) To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
(transitive, intransitive) Of an alter in dissociative identity disorder: to be the currently actively presenting member of (a system), in control of the patient's body.
(transitive, colloquial) To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
(intransitive, slang) To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
(transitive, slang) To deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).
(transitive) To appear before.
Examples
The great gate fronting to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.
The door fronted on a narrow run, like a footbridge over a gully, that filled the gap between the house wall and the edge of the bank.
They emerged atop the broad curving steps that fronted on the Street of the Sisters, near the foot of Visenya's Hill.
The palazzo has always fronted on a bus stop—but this putative man of the people has kindly put an end to that public service.
After saluting her, he led her to a couch that fronted us, where they both sat down, and the young Genoese helped her to a glass of wine, with some Naples biscuit on a salver.
[…] down they ran into the dining-room, which fronted the lane, in quest of this wonder; it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate.
She sat on a seat under the alders in the cricket ground, and fronted the evening.
Know you not Gaueston hath store of golde,Which may in Ireland purchase him such friends,As he will front the mightiest of vs all,
What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
those that have willed to attaine to some greater excellence, have not beene content, at home, and at rest to expect the rigors of fortune […]; but have rather gone to meet and front her before, and witting-earnestly cast themselves to the triall of the hardest difficulties.
But Dagley immediately fronted him, and Fag at his heels growled low […] .
On returning home, he fronted his servant about this grisly discovery.
Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.
The velar plosives are often fronted through the influence of a following front vowel, and retracted through the influence of a following back vowel.
[…] in the clause, only the adjective may be fronted; but if both a past participle and a verbal particle are present, either may be fronted. Topicalization, in which maximal projections are fronted to express pragmatics such as contrast, emphasis, ...
A problem facing any syntactic analysis of hyperbaton is that nonconstituent strings are fronted […] In cases where the adjective is fronted with the determiner, the determiner is not doubled […]
Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.
Ray Winstone is fronting a campaign for the Football Association that aims to stop pushy parents shouting abuse at their children during the grassroots football season.
Fronting can be understood as a representation of who controls the system, that is, the person to whom you are speaking. Emilia was typically the person fronting her system.
I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.
Synonyms: put on airs, feign
So when I tell people where I'm from and check their reactions, I know in my heart I'm just frontin’. Because the way and where I lived then pales when compared to the way and where many youths are living today.
What's with these homies dissin' my girl? / Why do they gotta front?
No matter how hard she fronted in the coming years, Carmiesha could never forget that she had given birth and had a child in this world. Even when she tried not to remember, she still couldn’t forget.
Boy don't try to front, / I-I know just-just what you are, are-are.
You know damned straight what this is about, or you ain't as smart as you been frontin'.
You think that you can front when revelation comes? / You can't front on that
to front court