to one's face
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Openly, directly, as in I do not have the nerve to tell him to his face that he wasn't invited and shouldn't have come. This idiom alludes to a direct confrontation. [Mid-1500s]
QUIZ
QUIZ YOURSELF ON "WAS" VS. "WERE"!
Were you ready for a quiz on this topic? Well, here it is! See how well you can differentiate between the uses of "was" vs. "were" in this quiz.
Question 1 of 7
“Was” is used for the indicative past tense of “to be,” and “were” is only used for the subjunctive past tense.
Words nearby to one's face
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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