facedown

[feys-doun, feys-doun]

adverb

1. with the face or the front or upper surface downward.

   He was lying facedown on the floor. Deal the cards facedown on the table.

noun

1. Informal.,  Also face-down a direct confrontation; showdown.

Word History and Origins

Origin of facedown¹

1930–35; facedown ( def. 1 ) face + down ¹; facedown ( def. 2 ) noun use of verb phrase face down

Example Sentences

Michael told her he was not being given pain medication and one night was handcuffed through the night in a way that he couldn't sleep facedown as required after his surgery.

From BBC

They discovered the 30-year-old's body in the kitchen facedown, and Mr Jones was arrested at 20.02 that day.

From BBC

For the first time, she describes waking up on the afternoon that he died in August 1977 and sensing something was wrong, before running into her father's room across the hallway and seeing him facedown on the bathroom floor.

From BBC

Ra’Miyah’s brother had unbuckled her from her car seat, and Williams found her facedown on the floor in the backseat of the van.

From Seattle Times

Yet AP found instructors at several state-certified training centers continue to teach — wrongly — that holding someone facedown doesn’t cause death by what’s known as positional asphyxia, which happens when the chest can’t expand, starving the body of oxygen.

From Seattle Times