face

From Middle English face, from Old French face, from Vulgar Latin *facia, from Latin faciēs (“form, appearance”), from facere (“to make, do”). 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).

Picture dictionary
forehead eyebrow eyelashes eye nose nostril cheek mouth lip jaw chin
body

• enPR: fās, IPA^(key): /feɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: face
• Rhymes: -eɪs

face (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) The front part of the head, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth and the surrounding area.

   The monkey has a pretty face.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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. The public image; outward appearance.

   The face of this company.  He managed to show a bold face despite his embarrassment.

4. The frontal aspect of something.

   The face of the cliff loomed above them.

5. (figuratively) 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.

6. The directed force of something.

   They turned to boat into the face of the storm.

7. Good reputation; standing in the eyes of others; dignity; prestige. (See lose face, save face).
8. Shameless confidence; boldness; effrontery.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Tillotson

     This is the man that has the face to charge others with false citations.

9. The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from end to end.

   a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face

10. (geometry) Any of the flat bounding surfaces of a polyhedron. More generally, any of the bounding pieces of a polytope of any dimension.
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.

    • Bible, Genesis ii.6:

      A mist […] watered the whole face of the ground.

    • (Can we date this quote?) Lord Byron

      Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face.

12. The numbered dial of a clock or watch, the clock face.
13. (slang) The mouth.

    Shut your face!  He's always stuffing his face with chips.

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

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

15. (slang, professional wrestling) A baby face: a headlining wrestler whose in-ring persona is embodying heroic or virtuous traits.

    The fans cheered on the face as he made his comeback.

16. (cricket) The front surface of a bat.
17. (golf) The part of a golf club that hits the ball.
18. (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).
19. (heraldry) The head of a lion, shown face-on and cut off immediately behind the ears.
20. (typography) A typeface.
21. Mode of regard, whether favourable or unfavourable; favour or anger.
    • Bible, Numbers vi.25:

      The Lord make his face to shine upon thee.

    • Bible, Ezekiel vii.22:

      My face [favour] will I turn also from them.

22. (computing) An interface.
    • 2003 May 14, Bart Leeten, Kris Meukens, JSR127 JavaServer Faces, VERSIE, p.1/6:

      For clarity reasons and to stress that JavaServer Faces is not only about ‘visual’ user interfaces, we propose to use the term ‘face’, to express what for visual interfaces is typically named a ‘screen’.

23. The amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, etc., without any interest or discount; face value.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of McElrath to this entry?)

• (part of head): countenance, visage, phiz (obsolete), phizog (obsolete), see also Thesaurus:countenance
• (facial expression): countenance, expression, facial expression, look, visage, see also Thesaurus:facial expression
• (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, mush, piehole, trap, see also Thesaurus:mouth
• (slang: wrestling): good guy, hero

• (baby face): heel

• → Danish: fjæs
• → Norwegian: 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, page 0045:

     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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     He gained 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 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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     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.

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

   The bunkers faced north and east, toward Germany.

6. (transitive) To have as an opponent.
   • 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.

7. (intransitive, cricket) To be the batsman on strike.
8. (obsolete) To confront impudently; to bully.
   • ca. 1590–92, William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Act IvVsc. 3 (first use in sense of "presenting one's face to", second use in sense of "confront"):

     Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave

     not me. I will neither be faced nor braved.

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

   a building faced with marble

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

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

11. 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.
12. (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 surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical surface.
13. (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

• lose face
• save face
• suck face

• 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

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

• face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• CAFE, cafe, café

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

• IPA^(key): /fas/

• Audio

  (file)

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

face f (plural faces)

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

• face à
• en face de
• faire face à
• pile ou face

• aspect
• figure
• surface
• tête
• visage

• “face” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• café

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

face f (plural facis)

1. face

face

1. present of facer
2. imperative of facer

face

1. (archaic) third-person singular indicative present of fare.

face

1. ablative singular of fax

face

1. second-person singular present imperative active of faciō

Borrowed from Old French face, from Vulgar Latin *facia, from Classical Latin faciēs.

face (plural faces)

1. (anatomy) face
   • 14th 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
  • → Danish: fjæs
  • → Norwegian: fjes
  • → Swedish: fjäs
• Scots: face

From Vulgar 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
  • English: face
    • → Danish: fjæs
    • → Norwegian: fjes
    • → Swedish: fjäs
  • Scots: face

From Old Portuguese façe, faz, from Latin faciēs.

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.sɨ/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.si/
• 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]

• IPA^(key): [ˈfatʃe]

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

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

• afacere
• facere
• făcător

• desface
• fapt

• înfăptui
• face dragoste

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

• (Castilian) IPA^(key): /ˈfaθe/
• (Latin America) IPA^(key): /ˈfase/

face

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of facer.
2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of facer.
3. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of facer.