face down
Britishverb
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With the upper surface put down, as in Please put these papers face down . This usage appears to come from cardplaying. [First half of 1600s] The antonym, “with the upper surface uppermost,” is face up .
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Overcome, intimidate, or browbeat someone in a bold confrontation. This verbal expression dates from the 16th century. Shakespeare used it in The Comedy of Errors (3:1): “Here's a villain that would face me down.”
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.
What Bagehot actually said was that a central bank must face down a panic by lending freely at a high rate of interest to solvent banks against good collateral.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
“I thought maybe they had fractured a rib because that’s how painful it was. I couldn’t sleep face down for three weeks.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026
One video starts with the character face down on a school desk, his legs not even close to touching the ground.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
A mock drowning in the pool, floating face down in the water as his mother does a butterfly stroke back and forth right next to him.
From Salon • Feb. 17, 2026
But they will have to wait to do the final side, because that side is lying face down.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
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.
