slap in the face
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Speaking outside the High Court in Glasgow afterwards Wylde's sister, Bernadette McCash, described the sentence as "a slap in the face".
From BBC • May 4, 2026
It turns your gift into a slap in the face with a wet fish.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026
“What happened to you was not miraculous,” he tells her, and the contention is to her tantamount to a slap in the face.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 2026
Instead, they got a slap in the face.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 30, 2025
“Well, there’s a slap in the face of the Elf King! Ghohg is returning your gift! Ha! To show he’s displeased! What an insult!”
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
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.
