Green’s Dictionary of Slang

boatrace n.²

the face.

a.1945		L. Payne private coll. n.p.: Face Boat Race.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 36: He came back with a big bandage on his thumb and a big smile on his boat race.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 23: A boat-race that can slip straight from looking like an angel’s to a snake’s.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 148: They bashed in the Major’s boat race so’s the law’d fink it was ole Park’urst wot got dun in.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 42: If anyone ever cut me on the boat race, I’d kill ’em.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] Skipped her boat race never her greatest feature.
2003		B. Dark Dirty Cockney Rhy. Sl. 24: She’s got a nice boat race but a really tiny bird’s nest.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 237: Then, surveying the manor with that bleedin look on his boat, —Hackney: not exactly a great part of town.
2016		Twitter 29 Dec. 🌐 Good morning meet the man who reconstructed my boat race.