face n.
1. (US, also facial area) audacity, impudence.
A Fair Quarrel II ii: I that had face enough to do the deed, Cannot want tongue to speak it. | ||
She Would if She Cou’d I i: I admire thy impudence, I could never have had the face to have wheadled the poor knight so. | ||
Man of Mode V i: I am amazed to find him here! How has he the face to come near you? | ||
Shortest Way n.p.: You have butchered one king! Deposed another king! And made a mock king of a third! And yet, you could have the face to expect to be employed and trusted by the fourth [F&H]. | ||
Spectator No. 566: A man has scarce the face to make his court to a lady, without some credentials from the service to recommend him [F&H]. | ||
‘Extra-Ordinary’ in Bentley’s Misc. IV 500: Would Tom but try, the brutes must rue it; / I’m sure Tom has ‘the face to do it!’. | ||
Sam Sly 12 May 3/3: [W]hy had you the face to tell him that you were the son of a wealthy gentleman. | ||
Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 370: I can hardly suppose even Phil Tirrett would have the face to throw me over and ride for O’Brien. | ||
Little Ragamuffin 200: I wonder you’ve got the face to ask such a thing. | ||
London Figaro 3 June n.p.: ‘Look at that girl in pink, Sancho,’ he said, ‘that’s Lord Rubric’s daughter. Ran away with the family organist—that’s he with her. I like their face, though, to come here; its awfully good.’ [F&H]. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jun. 9/2: The two loungers were passing the G.P.O., when suddenly the handsome clerk, catching sight of a party coming the opposite way, hurriedly dragged his friend up Barrack-street, and exclaimed, ‘I couldn’t have the face to meet that man.’. | ||
Lantern (N.O.) 29 Jan. 2: He has the face to think he’s a masher. | ||
Aus. Sl. Dict. 237: Face, confidence, impudence, brass, etc. | ||
Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 16: face n. Audacity, impudence. facial area Same as ‘face’. | ||
Fact’ry ’Ands 214: Acourse I parted me arf jim — couldn’t have ther brick face t’ do less under ther circs. | ||
Five Thousand an Hour Ch. xviii: ‘I knew it would be a deuced lot of bother for you,’ regretted Eugene apologetically. ‘It’s a lot of face in us to ask it. So crude, you know.’. | ||
Ulysses 698: Then he wrote me that letter with all those words in it how could he have the face to. | ||
Crumple Zone 1: Today they’ve got real face. They’re standing — hangin’ more like — bang on my home run. |
2. credit at a public house.
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Sl. Dict. |
3. (US) the mouth, as a source of speech; in phrs. below.
4. (US) the mouth, as used for eating and drinking.
Chimmie Fadden Explains 34: He trowed schooners down his face. | ||
Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: He’s weeding [the pocketbook] when he sees a grab all across the street leaning on a mush with a steamer in his face. |
5. (US) a person, with ref. to interference, nosiness.
Chinese Girl (2001) 191: And keep your face out of his business or you’re brown bread. |
6. a general term of address, e.g. Hello, face.
Psmith in the City (1993) 58: ‘Sit down, fice!’ roared the pleasure-seekers. | ||
Inimitable Jeeves 205: ‘Hallo, face,’ I said. | ||
Child of Norman’s End (1967) 36: ‘Hallo, Face!’ cried the others. |
7. (Aus.) one’s personal appearance.
Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
8. (US black) a stranger, esp. a white stranger.
N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb. 20: They figured it out that all clucks belong in the smoker or doing a mirror on the No 2 Face’s treads. | ||
Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. n.p.: face: white man. |
9. (US) fellatio or cunnilingus; usu. as get face or give face.
(ref. late 19C) Amer. Madam (1981) 89: These items of sexual life had various names over the years. [...] If the guest was the active partner, he was muff-diving, a face-man, or after sea-food-mama. | ||
Lessons for Teacher [ebook] You’ll mouth it, white girl! You gonna gimme some face else I’ll beat yo’ ass. | ||
Indep. on Sun. Rev. 6 Feb. 24: Hey, I bet you give great Dutch face, right? |
10. (US black) a white person.
‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
11. (US) a cosmetics kit, thus make-up.
Last Exit to Brooklyn 50: [Lee] took a mirror from her pocketbook, examined her face then dove in her pocketbook and extracted her comb, cosmetics and hurriedly fixed her face [ibid.] 220: Im going to shower, dress and put a face on then we can go to Marys for a few drinks. | ||
(con. 1965) Mother Camp 83: Skip re-appears in ‘face’ but men’s clothes. | ||
Indep. Mag. 12 May 62: Unless I’m going to a function or out to dinner, I don’t put a face on. |
12. a person; esp. in police use, a known criminal.
[ | Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: Who is Jimmy de Face? [...] He used to be a gope cracker, but four long stretches in the stir broke his heart and he’s a dead one now]. | |
(con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 45: I don’t want no Dills Hotel whore queerin the joint fer all the respec’bul faces. | ||
Bang To Rights 22: I eventually managed to catch up with this face I new. | ||
Guntz 52: While I was rabbiting to this face another face came in. | ||
You Flash Bastard 120: Sneed wasn’t interested in the flasher [...] Not even in the face who was selling pills to a head in the entrance to the underground station. | ||
Only Fools and Horses [TV script] The face who dropped a microwave oven in the market! What did he look like? | ‘May the Force be with You’||
Guardian Guide 12–18 June 89: Vic Dakin, a gangland face not a million miles away from Ronnie Kray. | ||
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 251: Risteóir, there’s a new face on the landing. | ||
Viva La Madness 18: I see two faces from London queuing for their luggage. | ||
To Die in June 184: Teddy Jamieson [...] Always out and about, face on the scene. |
13. (US Und.) a respectable image, a ‘front’.
Small Time Crooks 53: You better start up a face pretty damn quick, or else. |
14. a recognizable person.
Awopbop. (1970) 88: You only had to be a face. And what was a face? Roughly, it was when you walked into any snob restaurant anywhere and everyone sensed you come in behind them and automatically turned round. | ||
New Musical Express 17 Nov. n.p.: There’d be all the faces and people that I knew. A face is just someone you recognise, you might not even know his name, but he’s known as a face. | ||
Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I am often up West Del, I’m one of the faces! | ‘Go West Young Man’||
(con. 1960s) London Blues 87: The other face we had in today is a character bereft of honesty, integrity, vision and truth. | ||
Layer Cake 69: He saw it as a bonus to run into a face he knew. | ||
Killer Tune (2008) 56: Your father [...] was a well-known face around town. | ||
Seven Demons 174: He knows people and people know him. He is a face. |
15. a fellow member of a mod gang, esp. one who is considered particularly fashionable.
🎵 I’m the face if you want it, dear, All the others are third class tickets by me baby, is that clear. | ‘I’m the Face’||
🎵 on Quadrophrenia [album] I am the face, she has to know me. I’m dressed up better than anyone within a mile. | ‘Sea and Sand’||
Guardian Guide 17–23 July 65: Every mod’s favourite film; the tale of Jimmy, a would-be face in mid-60s London. | ||
John Peel 47: Feld had been a face on the London Mod scene since the early 1960s. |
16. (UK Und.) a professional criminal, usu. an armed robber with no territorial ambitions.
(ref. to 1960s–70s) That Was Business, This Is Personal 3: The end of the sixties and early seventies saw the emergence of the ‘Face’, the armed robber who worked in a small team, [and] had little interest in controlling territory beyond a nice mansion house in Hertfordshire or Essex. | ||
Raiders 52: A south London face who was big in the porn industry. |
In phrases
(US black) to fellate.
in Getting Played 78: Interviewer: Like what might he say and she says that's not true? Ronald: She faced 'em up [had oral sex with them]. |
Pertaining to oral sex
In compounds
(US Und.) a fellator or fellatrix.
Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 115: I have met every kind of a crook there is [...] can-opener artists and sometimes face artists. | ||
Und. Speaks 37/1: Face artist, a sexual pervert. | ||
Sex Variants. | ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry||
Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 15: face artist (n.): A fellator. (Slang.). | ||
Queens’ Vernacular. |
(US gay) semen, esp. when ejaculated onto a fellator’s face.
Queens’ Vernacular. | ||
Gay (S)language. |
(US) cunnilingus.
(ref. to late 19C) Amer. Madam (1981) 244: That always seemed to please the trade that wanted a face job in a black muff. |
a counterfeiter.
New Sprees of London 21: This crib is kept by a notorious face maker, named Bob Dorkings, the only surviving branch of a family that have all dropped off suddenly, at hot roll time. | ||
‘Joskin’s Vocab.’ in Yokel’s Preceptor 30: Face makers, Coiners. |
the ejaculation of semen over one’s partner’s face.
Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 12: face-painting v. To adorn one’s spouse with jelly jewellery (qv). |
(US gay) fellatio.
Gay (S)language. |
In phrases
(US black) to perform cunnilingus.
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
to permit oneself to indulge in oral intercourse at the insistence of a partner.
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
Pertaining to the mouth
In phrases
(US) to speak, esp. to speak rudely.
Artie 26: If you open your face to this lady again tonight I’ll separate you from your breath. | ||
Eve. Post 11 Jan. 6/5: Hould yer lyin’ tongue, and open your face at your peril! | ||
Man with Two Left Feet 123: He just thought a heap without opening his face. | ‘Making of Mac’s’ in||
Nottingham Eve. Post 10 Sept. 5/2: You just open your face with that sort of talk in Alberta and you’ll hear something to your good. | ||
Runyon on Broadway (1954) 81: Nobody as much as opens his face from the time we go in until we start out. | ‘Blood Pressure’ in||
(con. 1920s) Big Money in USA (1966) 784: Out our way a man can’t open his face without stirrin’ up a hornets’ nest. | ||
(con. 1950s) Unit Pride (1981) 43: Don’t let me catch any of you guys openin’ you face to anythin’ different. |
to be quiet; esp. as imper. shut your face!
Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 19 July 4/2: He [...] told me to ‘shut my face, or he would knock half my b—y snout off’. | ||
in Punch 26 Nov. 252: Shut yer face, you pattering josser! | ||
George’s Mother (2001) 122: Close yer face while I gits me smoke! | ||
Spoilers 27: You shut your face. | ||
Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 1 Aug. 31/3: Siit down, Gett, and shut the front door of your face. | ||
Enemy to Society 295: You keep your face closed, George, and you too, Morgy. | ||
Limehouse Nights 308: Shut yeh silly face. | ||
Handful of Ausseys 272: Oh, shut yer face an’ give yer mouth a chance, you hungry-gutted coot. | ||
White Moll 172: ‘You close your face, Pinkie!’ he snapped. | ||
Pleasant Jim 50: ‘You, Chuck, shut your face,’ said the marshal peremptorily. | ||
Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 20 Aug. 11/2: Eventually the model ‘S.M. Herald’ leader will read like this [...] If we thort ger wun minit Jack Lang wus jonnick we’d shut our face. | ||
Awake and Sing! I i: Shut your face! | ||
Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 106: Shut your face up, sonny. | ||
Died in the Wool (1963) 182: You shut your face or I’ll knock your bloody block off. | ||
Long Wait (1954) 15: If you’re holding me on a charge, name it or shut your face. | ||
Nil Carborundum (1963) Act I: Shut your face. | ||
Puberty Blues 77: Shut ya face or you’ll get it too. | ||
Blow Your House Down 1: Brenda rounded on her, ‘Shut your face, you.’. | ||
Ship Inspector 205: ‘Fuck off.’ ‘Shut your face.’. | ||
Indep. 3 June 8: Just shut your face and leave it all to me. | ||
Observer Mag. 4 Jan. 14: A guy like that should shut his face. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. a beating-up.
McClure’s Mag. 25 26/1: ‘Got the face-ache?’ demanded the second mate, rising with a clenched fist. ‘No, sir,’ stammered the steward [...] Doyle hauled off and floored him. ‘Got the face-ache now? [...] Well, you’ll get it every time you go screwing your mouth up behind an officer’. | ||
Paradise Alley (1978) 47: He and his brothers stood an odds-on chance of being waltzed into the alley and given a professional face-ache that would last them the rest of the summer. |
2. a joc. form of address or nickname [the ache presumably comes f. laughter].
Sport (Adelaide) 14 Mar. 4/6: Why does Joe W [...] swear when he sees Faceache . | ||
Enter the Saint 37: Face Ache — I mean Uncle Ambrose — is paying. | ||
Marsh 46: Kick off, Faceache. | ||
Public School Slang 59: Invective again may be expressed figuratively [...] The metaphor may be contained in a single word — e.g. face-ache, fathead, batty [...] , half-baked. | ||
Pagan Game (1969) 162: I said, look here, face-ache. | ||
Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 283: I’m very worried about you, face ache. | ||
High Cotton (1993) 72: The Americans asked, ‘What do you boys have against the flag?’ and the British said, ‘You, face-ache.’. | ||
Mad Cows 103: Jack [...] gave her one of his dubious, ‘Cut the crap, face-ache’ expressions. | ||
posting at forums.gorillaz.com 31 July 🌐 Hey, face-ache! didn’t I tell you to pay the heating bill before my birthday?? |
the head.
Through Beatnik Eyeballs 25: Fair near knocked a chick’s fise-box off one time. |
(US black) $100 bill.
🎵 Genuine is real, a face card is a hundred dollar bill. | ‘Ebonics’
sideburns.
Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 12: face fannies n. Bugger’s grips; sideburns. As sported by ‘Rocket’ Ron Haslam, Sir Rhodes Boyson and the singer out of ‘Supergrass’. |
1. (N.Z.) a belch.
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 75: face fart 1. A belch. |
2. (N.Z.) a general term of abuse.
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 75: face fart [...] 2. Ugly person. |
a moustache, presumably a large one that protrudes on either side of the cheeks.
DSUE (8th edn) 372/2: late C.19–20. |
a beard and/or moustache.
Windsor Mag. 4 158/1: A Biblically minded pupil had, on the analogy of the Samson-Delilah case, come to the conclusion that were he shorn of his face-fittings, he would ipso facto lose his wonderful skill with the cane. | ||
Cornhill Mag. 89 678: [heading] The Folly of face-fittings. The ideal man is clean-shaven. Confidently he exposes to the world his features undisguised by hirsute appendages. | ||
Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
(Aus.) male facial hair.
W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 28 July 1/1: The fierce-whiskered Dook intimated that face-fluff is the divine right of nobility. |
see separate entries.
male facial hair, i.e. a beard and/or moustache; occas. as a term of address.
Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 13 May 6/2: He offered to pledge one of his whiskers [...] he had grossly over-capitalised his face-fungus. | ||
Punch 134 127/2: [He] will now be able to subject his chin to that prolonged and careful irrigation without which no really satisfying face fungus can be provoked. | ||
[ | Shorty McCabe on the Job 199: The front office door opens easy, and in slips this face herbage exhibit]. | |
Sub 132: Neither are the ‘young gentlemen’ encouraged to grow their face fungus. | ||
Inimitable Jeeves 106: Few people have ever looked fouler than Bingo in the fungus. | ||
Final Count 860: Now then, face fungus, what the hell does it mean? | ||
Western Gaz. 13 Mar. 2/5: The old blades that Ole Bill uses these days to uproot his face fungus. | ||
Sporting Times 74: He was a stout man, with a wide countenance adorned with grey, mutton-chop whiskers — a species of ‘face fungi’ much in vogue at the time. | ||
Sun. Post 22 Feb. 8/5: Get the skipper to allow you to shave off that face fungus of yours. | ||
Behind Bamboo 396/1: Face fungus, beard. | ||
With Hooves of Brass 111: ‘Believe it or not, Ziff is quite a good-looking bloke under that face-fungus’. | ||
Vengeance 67: D’ya think ’e’ll reck-ernise ya wiv’ out ya face fungis? | ||
Foetal Attraction (1994) 266: There’s three inches of face fungus on his chin. | ||
Escape Inc. 228: Andy did a spot of the driving while I got rid of the face fungus. | ||
Happy Mutant Baby Pills 132: Even though [...] I now owned the requisite face fur, my people were fiends, not hipsters. | ||
Empty Wigs (t/s) 177: [T]hose bearded brutes Marx and Kropotkin - just what is it about rancid face-fungus and subversion? |
the mouth.
Urban Dict. 20 July 🌐 Face Hole Used to describe a mouth or pie hole. | ||
Twitter 14 Oct. 🌐 Part of me thinks 'Christmas?' and the other part thinks ‘open all four [bottles] now and pour into your facehole’. |
whiskers; a beard.
‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 445: Face lace, Whiskers. | ||
You’re in the Racket, Too 187: You couldn’t expect a tart to look twice at a bloke with face-lace like that. | ||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 79: face lace Whiskers; a beard. |
a father of an illegitimate child; thus face-making, conceiving a child illegitimately.
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Face-making. Begetting children. | |
Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | ||
Tom And Jerry; Musical Extravaganza 53: Face-makers, fathers of bastards. | ||
Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 177: The overseers, with tremendous frowns and black looks on their brows, threatened Sporting betsey [...] that if ever she committed more sins in the face-making* line—quod, and nothing else should be her portion. (*Slang phrase for bastard children). | ||
‘Rummy Toasts’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 295: Success to the face-making manufactory. |
an attractive man, a ‘pretty boy’.
CUSS 113: Face man A sexually attractive person, male. A socially adept person. | et al.||
Harder They Come 153: Dah youth over deh by de bar. You see how ’im have face? Prety bwai, nice in ’im face. Is a faceman dat. | ||
Guardian Weekly 15 Sept. 21: Your fellow drinkers back at the bar, for instance. Are they students? [...] They won’t be drunk at the end of the evening, they’ll be combooselated. They may be facemen (handsome) or fugly (fat and ugly). |
(US) speech, verbal delivery.
Mexico Missouri Message (MO) 18 Jan. 3/1: His Face Music was as rough house as a police captain talking fireworks to his men . |
to place one’s palm on one’s forehead to indicate frustration or stupidity; also as n. and excl.
Guardian 23 Nov. 🌐 One of [Susie Dent’s] favourite creative words was ‘facepalm’, indicating the movement of someone's palm to their forehead [...] it is being used as a verb or a noun. You can say, ‘She gave herself a facepalm … or you can just say, “Facepalm! Lol”.’. | ||
UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011 4: FACEPALM — place the hands on the face out of annoyance or frustration: ‘I facepalmed when Steve said that in front of the class.’ ‘You are so stupid! Facepalm!’. | ||
UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 3: FACEPALM — drop one’s face into one’s hand as an expression of exasperation, embarrassment [...] When written, usually placed between asterisks: ‘I forgot my homework on my desk. *Facepalm*’. |
(US) a fall face-first to the ground, also as v.
Gone, Baby, Gone 295: He whacked me on the back in what I guess was a friendly show of camaraderie that almost sent me into a face plant into the mud. | ||
On the Bro’d 57: Beth totally tripped and faceplanted. | ||
Appel 217: I was happy I didn’t impact a building or do a face plant on the regiment’s parade square. |
(Aus.) an alcoholic drink.
Battlers 173: It was Uncle who insisted that, as Snow was just out of hospital, they should all stop at the first hotel and get him a ‘face plaster’. |
(Aus.) facial hair.
Human Torpedo 31: He didn’t look old enough for a job, even with all the face-prickle. |
(US campus) to kiss passionately.
Campus Sl. Oct. | ||
Sl. and Sociability 31: Some compounds are grammatically ambiguous. Facerape ‘kiss passionately’ can be analyzed noun + verb or noun + noun. |
(Aus.) a beard.
With Hooves of Brass 114: ‘One spark in that face scrub, and it would blaze up like a gum!’. |
(US) an old woman who attempts to look young.
Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 14 Sept. 4/4: The Flappers’ Dictionary [...] Face Stretcher: Old maid who tries to look young. |
In phrases
used of anyone seen as duplicitous or unreliable.
Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases 56: CHURCHYARD CLOCK, AS MANY FACES AS A: Used of an unreliable man (Old Navy). | ||
DSUE (8th edn) 721/2: C.19–early 20. |
see separate entry.
a phr. used to describe someone who is irresistibly charming.
Sir Launcelot Greaves I 165: Your honour’s face is made of a fiddle; every one that looks on you loves you. |
(Aus.) to get angry, excited or over-emotional (cf. get one’s guts in a knot under gut n.).
Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Dec. 7/7: Bushie need not get his face in a knot, as I am willing to ride against any girl under 20 years of age, for 50 miles, without a saddle or padding, for a small stake. | ||
World (Hobart, Tas.) 11 June 6/3: I am not your enemy because I want to elucidate matters in the interests of my clients. So don’t get your face in a knot when I ask you a fair question! | ||
Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 16 Mar. 7/4: A big business man with baggy trousers and his red face in a knot. | ||
Cunninghams (1986) 135: ‘What a face!’ she told her eldest son, who came in with his nose in a knot about something. |
(orig. US black) to stop pestering, to leave alone, esp. as imper.; vars. are ad hoc, see cits. 1928 and 1979; thus in someone’s face
in | Songsters and Saints (1984) 33: Take those scroungers out of my face.||
🎵 Yes woman you’ve been messin’ around / So woman get out of my face / Or I take my fist and knock you down. | ‘Cat You Been Messin’ Around’||
Really the Blues 4: Jim Crow just wouldn’t get out of my face. | ||
(con. 1920s–30s) Youngblood (1956) 38: ‘Man, get outa my face,’ Joe Youngblood said. | ||
Simply Heavenly I iii: Melon, I say, get out of my face. | ||
Black Drama I ii: Get outta my face, boy – get outta my face, before I kill you! | Purlie Victorious in||
Cross of Lassitude 274: I cold-cocked her with a water jug. She wouldn’t get outa my face. | ||
Carlito’s Way 43: If you so slick, why you here, motherfucker? Get out of my face. | ||
Airtight Willie and Me 38: You jive flat-backing zero bitch, stay out of my face! | ||
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 95: Tell ’im get out you face. Jus’ righteously ride ’im down to the ground! | ||
🎵 Came into the party just to rock the place / And your big zombie lookin’ freak still won’t get out of my face. | ‘Rhyme Pays’||
Trainspotting 174: Git ootay ma face. Tell us it wisnae you thit turned Tommy oantae Sekker n that crowd. | ||
Cold Wing Dinner 169: So get out of my face with that bullshit. |
(US) to challenge, to attack.
On the Bro’d 75: She was looking to bitch out on somebody. She started getting all up in Ricky’s face. |
to collapse with laughter.
Rooted I i: Jees I had to laugh. Nearly went off my face. |
1. to be ugly, e.g. she’s got a face on her like...
Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | ||
Kullark 65: Sour faced ol’ cow. ’Ad a face on ’im like death. |
2. to be in a troubled, nervous mood.
Commitments 4: He didn’t mind the song. But Jimmy had a face on him. | ||
Cartoon City 45: Myles noticed Jarlath Boon skulking in the far corner with a face on him like a boiled squirrel. | ||
Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 177: Clementine [...] is sitting there with a big face on him. | ||
Blood Miracles 51: ‘I don’t know what you did but she’s got a face on her’. |
to be penniless.
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: N’are-a-face-but-his-own Not a Penny in his Pocket. | ||
New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
Life and Adventures. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: No face but his own: a saying of one who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his hand. | |
‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: [as cit. 1785]. | ||
Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Ne’er a face but his own not a farthing in his pocket. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
Modern Flash Dict. | ||
Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. |
(orig. US black) in a confrontational manner, used of one who forces their attentions on another; often as get in someone’s face v., to confront, to provoke.
Really the Blues 106: He got in my face just as I stepped into the lobby [...] ‘You’re Milton Mezzrow, aren’t you?’ He seemed too honest for a bill-collector or a process-server. | ||
Thief’s Primer 143: Down here in prison, one of these rums, one of these idiots, he’s not going to get in my face. | ||
Airtight Willie and Me 135: What the fuck you doing here in my face? | ||
🎵 I’m outspoken, no jokin’, get in my face your jaw will get broken. | ‘Power’||
Street Talk 2 19: She’s always in my face! | ||
Oz ser. 2 ep. 2 [TV script] ‘Why did you do it?’ [i.e. an assault] ‘He got in my face’. | ‘Ancient Tribes’||
Workin’ It 187: I wish I had never stole from her or cussed her out ’cause she be in my business – you know, telling me to calm down and don’t do this and take care of the children. | ||
Yes We have No 146: Some yob is always in his face. | ||
Handbook for Boys 12: [W]hen people do things for you, they start getting all up in your business. | ||
Crooked Little Vein 71: Look, I’m sorry I got in your face before. | ||
What They Found 181: I’m not the kind of girl who goes around getting into other people’s business and I definitely don’t want you in mine. | ‘marisol and skeeter’ in
1. aggressive, intense, confrontational.
Detroit Free Press (MI) 1 Dec. 4D/5: It’s his way of saying: ‘There — You see!’ ‘In your face,’ they say on the street. | ||
Wash. Post 25 Feb. D1: Pipkin was the epitome of the ‘hot dog’, interested only in a personal, in-your-face confrontation with the defender of the moment. | ||
Philadelphia Dly News (PA) 11 July 86/4: ‘He went on to do incredible things at Drake. Sort of gave us an in-your-face job’. | ||
Grand Central Winter (1999) 64: That’s Bold Gold. Worn gangsta-style. Up-front and In-Your-Face. | ||
Guardian Editor 21 Jan. 19: Asking in-your-face questions to outrageous guests. | ||
Indianapolis Star (IN) 15 Apr. 73/2: ‘My son pops out his pacifier and says, “Oh, shit.” That was my first in-your-face moment’. | ||
Star trib. (Minneapolis, MN) 12 May A11/1: The impact of in-your-face talking heads, TV’s extreme close-ups [...] violate real-life social norms. |
2. unashamed.
Six Out Seven (1994) 21: Stacy had graduated to in-your-face fat, and these days you wouldn’t even figure he owned a shirt. |
(UK black/gang) wearing a mask.
Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 No face - masked, with identity concealed. | (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at
(UK/US Black / gang) phr. claiming that if the police have no identification of an individual, they cannot bring a case against them in court.
avvo.com 17 Jan. 🌐 Is the saying "no face no case" true? [...] You could still be convicted on circumstantial evidence even if the video is not definitive. So, no, that phrase is not automatically true. | ||
🎵 Get round there and ching man up, like anything B get wetted / No face, no case. | ‘Next Up?’
1. under the influence of drink or drugs.
Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 78/1: off one’s face stoned on marijuana. | ||
Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Danny come in [...] drinking Jim Beam, in and out of the pisshouse, gets off his face. They kicked him out. | ||
Curvy Lovebox 148: Marcello’s wide awake now, but still off his face. | ||
Grits 33: Foof, am off me fuckin face . . . this is just fuckin incredible. [Ibid.] 106: Am just pissed off mi ferce. | ||
Truth 140: ‘She’s okay?’ ‘Um, speak freely, boss?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Off her face, boss. | ||
Times Review 30 Apr. 3/6: He started working for them ‘sitting 16ft up a lighting rig, off my face, pretending to work’. | ||
Good Girl Stripped Bare 21: He’s on ‘rowies’ — a tranquiliser ten times stronger than Valium. His entire gang [...] are off their pock-marked faces on it. |
2. in fig. use, extremely enthusiastic about.
Llama Parlour 19: My project’s in turnaround at the Sundance Institute [...] Redford is apparently off his face over it! He’s zonked. Like totally. |
3. crazy.
Outside In Act II: Fucken off their faces, I reckon. | ||
Dinkum Aussie Dict. 39: Off his (or her) face: Mad. |
(US) on credit, for free.
[ | Sl. Dict. 156: Face entry the entrée to a theatre. From the FACE being known, as distinguished from free-list entry]. | |
Tales of the Ex-Tanks 56: I went through all the regular pockets – not a sou-marquee. ‘This is nice,’ I thought, ‘I can’t do the Continent [...] on my face.’. | ||
Last Million 149: ‘How do we get there?’ inquired her practical friend. Miss Lane [...] smiled seraphially. ‘I guess we can do it on our faces.’. |
under the influence of drink or drugs.
Ringolevio 46: Both of them were goofballed out of their faces. | ||
Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 6 Aug. [Internet] I went to the beach with Karey L. We got smoked up. Holy shit – were we ever stoned out of our faces. | ||
Guardian Rev. 13 Aug. 19: You don’t even try to get up in the morning / You just reach for your skins and you’re out of your face. | ||
Urban Grimshaw 36: Greta and I [...] got loads of brown and got smashed out of our faces. |
(UK black) absent, away.
(con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 201: I’m outta your miserable face. |
to obtain credit through deceit or bravado.
Coll. Works (1966) III 47: There are three ways of getting into debt; first by pushing a face, as thus, ‘You Mr. Lutestring, send me home six yards of that paduasoy, dammee; but harkee, don’t think I ever intend to pay you for it, dammee.’. | ‘Serious reflections on the life and death of the late Mr. TC ’ in
(orig. US) to obtain credit.
[ | Life’s Vagaries 24: Well, I didn’t run in debt for my face]. | |
Morning Herald (N.Y.) 7 Feb. 2/2–3: At the better place, many of them can run their face for drinks. | ||
Picking from N.O. Picayune 76: He is never loth to ‘run his face’ whenever the credit system leaves an aperture into which he can insinuate it. | ||
Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 66: Men whose word wuz full ez good’s their note, / Men that can run their face for drinks. | ||
Wanderings of a Vagabond 94: He would start on a spree, and keep it up as long as he had a cent or could run his face for a dram. | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Sept. 17/1: [G]etting her meals irregularly where she could ‘stand up’ the restaurant keepers, or going without them when she failed to ‘run her face’. | ||
‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 17: run one’s face, v. phr. To make use of one’s credit. | ||
Dial. Grant County 53: Run one’s face...use one’s credit, buy on tick [DARE]. | ||
in DARE. |
see under soak v.1 .
see under suck v.1
see under suck v.1
(orig. US black) arguing with, confronting face-to-face, e.g. as get up / jump up in(someone’s) face.
Snakes (1971) 102: You oughtta see how nice my old man been now [....] Remember how the cat use to all the time be up in my face and standin on my head? | ||
Won't Know Till I Get There 57: I knew that Hi-Note and Earl had been edging toward a showdown for a while, but I didn't think Hi-Note would jump up into Earl's face like that. | ||
Scorpions 149: ‘Don’t jump up in my face ’cause you got a gun’. | ||
Slam! 203: What I would have really liked to have happened was to let the coach come up and jump up in my face. | ||
145th Street 80: One of the Tigros spotted Monkeyman and got up in his face. | ‘Monkeyman’ in||
(con. 1998–2000) You Got Nothing Coming 74: All I’m sayin’ to you is that when some motherfucking two-ton toad gets up in your face, starts [...] playing you, you’re gonna want some righteous woods to stand up for you. | ||
Handbook for Boys 138: ‘I bet you feel funny sitting there hearing me talk about God, don't you? [...] Me putting God all up in your face when you just want to eat your breakfast’. | ||
What They Found 181: ‘[D]on’t be jumping up in my face because I don’t like that’. | ‘marisol and skeeter’ in||
Corruption Officer [ebook] Ch. 11: Just lookatcha, runnin’ round here, up in all these bitches faces telling ya corny jokes and shit. | ||
Kick 174: ‘You’re all up in my business, ain’t you?’ McNamara came back. | ||
Seven Demons 10: Sean got all up in my face about a murder he committed. |
In exclamations
a dismissive rejoinder.
From Here to Eternity (1998) 38: ‘Your face,’ Leva said. ‘Your mother’s box,’ Milt said. | ||
Campus Sl. Apr. 2: in your face, facial – exclamation: That’s unfair. That was unsuccessful. | ||
Wayne’s World [film script] Wayne: New York. ’Yo! Taxi!!! In your face!’. | et al.||
(ref. to 1963) Bend for Home 174: Oh but I do. You do in your gob. | ||
Indep. Rev. 10 July 8: Yo’ Momma! In yo’ face! | ||
Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Take you there. In your face. |
a general dismissive excl., often following a real or imagined request for a match.
If you Don’t Watch Out 93: ‘Well, let’s have a cigarette before I go. Got a match?’ ‘Yes. Your face and my ass’. | ||
Southern Folklore Quarterly Vol. 31 29: Do you have a match? Your face and my ass. Your breath and my farts. My socks, your breath. Not since Superman died. | ||
It (1987) 348: ‘Your f-f-face and my buh-buh-butt, T-T-Tozier,’ Bill said and hung up. | ||
(con. 1960) My Secret Hist. (1990) 175: ‘Give me a match, shit-for-brains.’ ‘Your face and my ass,’ Larry said, and punched him on the arm. | ||
(con. 1970) Dazzling Dark (1996) I iii: Your face and my ass. | Danti-Dan in McGuinness||
Salesman 292: ‘Have you a match?’ I said. ‘Your face and me arse, Homer.’. | ||
🎵 Here’s a match – my ass and your face. | ‘Craswlspace’