face

noun

1. 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.

   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.[…]’

2. 2

   informalOne's facial expression.

   Why the sad face?

3. 3

   informalA distorted facial expression; an expression of displeasure, insult, etc.

   Children! Stop making faces at each other!

4. 4

   informalThe 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.

   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.

5. 5

   informalThe mouth.

   Shut your face!

   He's always stuffing his face with chips.

6. 6

   informalMakeup; one's complete facial cosmetic application.

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

7. 7

   figurativePublic image; outward appearance.

   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”.

8. 8

   figurativeGood reputation; standing, in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige.

   lose face

   save face

9. 9

   figurativeShameless 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.

10. 10

    figurativeAn 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.

11. 11

    figurativePresence; sight; front.

    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.

12. 12

    figurativeA person; the self; (reflexively) oneself.

    It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.

    He better not show his face around here no more.

13. 13

    figurativeA 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.

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

14. 14

    figurativeA 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. 15

    The frontal aspect of something.

    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.

    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.

16. 16

    The frontal aspect of something. 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. 17

    The directed force of something.

    They turned the boat into the face of the storm.

18. 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.

    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.

19. 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. 20

    The front surface of a bat.

21. 21

    The part of a golf club that hits the ball.

22. 22

    The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.

23. 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. 24

    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. 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. 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. 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. 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:

    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

1. 1

   To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).

   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.

   Smooth and slender and naked, Mary Rittersdorf faced her husband.

2. 2

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

   Turn the chair so it faces the table.

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

3. 3

   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. 4

   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.

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

5. 5

   To be presented or confronted with; to have in prospect.

   We are facing an uncertain future.

   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.

6. 6

   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.

   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.

7. 7

   To have the front in a certain direction.

   The seats in the carriage faced backwards.

8. 8

   To have as an opponent.

   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.

9. 9

   To be the batsman on strike.

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

10. 10

    obsoleteTo 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.

    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.

11. 11

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

    a building faced with marble

    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.

12. 12

    To line near the edge, especially with a different material.

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

13. 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. 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. 15

    slangTo smoke (as, a joint or blunt) entirely by oneself.

    He faced that blunt in ten minutes.

adverb

1. 1

   slangIntensely.

   He's tripping face.

   She must be rolling face.

Forms

plural

faces

past tense

faced

past participle

faced

present participle

facing

third person singular

faces