adjective
-
unconcealed or shameless
a barefaced lie
-
with the face uncovered or shaven
Other Word Forms
- barefacedly adverb
- barefacedness noun
Etymology
Origin of barefaced
Explanation
If masked means hidden, barefaced means unconcealed. If you get caught speeding and reach into your wallet and hand the officer $20, that’s a barefaced attempt at a bribe. Barefaced — or as it's sometimes known, bald-faced — behavior is always bold and sometimes shameless. Nonchalantly telling a security guard at the jewelry store that you "plain forgot" you'd slipped the necklace into your pocket is a barefaced lie and shameless to boot. A reporter's barefaced questioning of a mayor found to be stealing from city treasury carries no shame, on the other hand — at least not for the reporter.
Vocabulary lists containing barefaced
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 2
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This August afternoon, she is on a video call from her home in Las Vegas, where the barefaced star shares a room with, as she describes it, “my Liberace piano” and a full-size carousel horse.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 3, 2025
Mr Khan's spokesperson previously said the circulated leaflets "peddle a barefaced lie".
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2024
For her self-pitying act, Ellis drew widespread disdain for her "crocodile tears" and "barefaced lies that could give a coyote gastric distress."
From Salon • Oct. 26, 2023
Dreijer is, by contrast, barefaced and bundled in a nondescript, oversize black hoodie when I reach them by video call in their studio in Stockholm.
From New York Times • May 10, 2023
“You’ve said that three times now, and each time you’ve told a barefaced lie.”
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
