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He was dressed in the ordinary black priestly garb, looked like an ascetic with pale, thin face, which lighted up very much when discussing any subject that interested him.
They were much amused when suddenly Francis burst into the room, having escaped a moment from his Nonnon, who was busy with her last packing, his little face flushed and quivering with anger because his toys had been packed and he was to be taken away from the big house.
It had a sweet, old—fashioned face, with a very high forehead, blue eyes, and dark hair arranged in two festoons of plaits, turned up at the sides.
The man leaned forward showing in the doorway a handsome face, dark almost to swarthiness.
At first she was satisfied with his explanation when he told her that he only ran in for a minute to see her pretty face.
He was dressed in the ordinary black priestly garb, looked like an ascetic with pale, thin face, which lighted up very much when discussing any subject that interested him.
I cannot describe woman‘s dress, but with her shadowy figure and worn, but still lovely face, she looked spiritual.
Within that room of chromos and the cold horsehair smell of unaired years, silence, except for the singing of three gas—jets, had momentarily fallen, a dozen or so flushed faces, grotesquely sobered, staring through the gaseous fog, the fluttering lids of a magistrate whose lips habitually fluttered, just lifting from his book.
« «Wish they‘d let us put some six—inch shells into her,« said Billy Edwards, the ensign, a wistful expression on his big round cheerful face.
He looked carefully at it, and to his intense astonishment saw the image of a brown face, with dark, intelligent eyes, and a look of awestruck wonderment expressed on its features.
He was very well mounted (there were some beautiful horses) but stooped slightly, and had rather a sad face.
A long procession of carriages is drawn up beside the building as we enter, and I recognize in the coachmen the familiar faces that wait outside the ACADEMY on opera nights.
Mr. Radbolt was a short plump man, with a weaselly face and cunning eyes; his wife‘s eyes, of a greeny color, stared stolidly out from her broad red face; she was taller than her mate, and her figure contrived to be at once stout and angular.
The public was curious, a little of everythingmembers of the National Assembly, officers all in uniform, pretty women of all categoriesthe group of journalists with keen eager faces watching every change of expression of the marshal‘s facesome well—known faces, wives of members or leading political and literary men, a fair amount of the frailer sisterhood, actresses and demi—mondaines, making a great effect of waving plumes and diamonds.
A long—drawn, irrepressible aspiration of expectancy rose from the warship‘s decks as the stranger raised his haggard face, turned eyes unseeingly upon them, and fell back.
«Laws, yes, Missy!« and Pompey‘s honest black face grew tender with sympathy.
« His companion‘s grave face showed no lightening.
Crowds seemed to sweep by without a pause,all hurrying, restless; some with anxious faces, as if any delay would be mortal; some in noisy groups intercepting the passage of the others.
I threw them over, one at a time, the old fellow last, and as he slipped from my hand into the river, he thrust his ugly face out of the water, and said, coolly, ‘Good morning!
The effects of this anxiety are visible in the pallid face and wasted body.
He had a pleasant, homely face, and thin, bent figure.
It may be of interest to his admirersa growing cultto add that his reason for wearing a mustache in a period of clean—shaven faces was that, without it, his mouth was not pleasant to look upon.
What? Down in the corner a small, yellow face lying in a nest of fur.
He was a fine, soldierly figure as he came in, in full uniform, a group of officers behind him, all with stern, set faces.
Granaries filled to bursting tripled in value, and, in congested districts, men with lean faces rioted when bread advanced a cent a loaf.
Adjectives Used for Face & Appearance Description
Face, Mouth, Lips, and Nose
To describe the shape of the face we can use the following adjectives: long, round, square, triangular, oval, with regular features, irregular, thin, lean, bony, with hollow cheeks, with a scar, with moles, with smooth skin, lined, ruddy, with freckles, chiseled, wide, thin, heart-shaped.
The expression of the face (usually) can be described by the following adjectives: winning, cheerful, friendly, charming, smiling, radiant, warm, fun, funny, nice, serene, anguished, anxious, sullen, sad, cross, worried, menacing, pensive, lively expression, a tense face, a wild expression, gloomy, frowning, expressive.
Lip shape and size: thin, full, pouting, rosebud (baby’s lips, often), pursed (puckered up, as when concentrating), protuberant lips, red, thin, thick.
Mouth expressions: laugh, smile, beam, grin, frown, grimace, scowl, sneer, curl, pout, half-open, large, sweet
Adjectives describing the mouth or mouth expressions: toothy, toothless, gap-toothed, kind, sweet, dimpled, relaxed, firm, serious, cruel, snarling
Describing the nose: big, little, short, long, large, straight, thin, crooked, pointed, sharp, aquiline, flattened, snub, bulbous, turned-up [11].
Eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, ears
Eye
Shape, size, and appearance: large, small, almond-shaped, round, squinty, crinkly, bulging, heavy-lidded, hooded, deep-set, close-set, hollow, tear-filled
Eye color: black, brown, hazel, green, blue, violet, gray, amber
Eye expressions: piercing, mesmerizing, sad, sorrowful, haunted, gentle, sympathetic, warm, compassionate, expressive, bright, twinkling, lively, dancing, laughing, shifty, sly, distrusting, sleepy
Other: brown-eyed boy, bright-eyed sister, wide-eyed child, gold-flecked eyes, almond-shaped, round, little, thin, bulging, brown, light-brown, dark, blue, light-blue, green, grey, made-up ,shortsighted, amazed, expressive, stunned, shining, sweet, smart, languishing, gentle, woeful, frightened, wide, bright
Eyebrows
Adjectives for eyebrows: thick, thin, emphasized, spaced, near
Eyelashes
Eylashes can be: long, short, spaced, made-up
Ears
Sticking, stick out, big, little, pointed [11].
Hair
Hair color: black, brunette, brown, chestnut-brown, blond, honey-blond, golden-blond, ash-blond, fair, cornsilk, auburn, red, strawberry-blond, gray, silver, white, salt-and-pepper.
Texture or appearance: wispy, fuzzy, wavy, curly, kinky, frizzy, wild, untamed, unmanageable, straight, spiky, stiff, buzzed, shaved, parted, neatly-combed, tamed, cascading, long, short, cropped, dull, shiny.
Hair styles: braids, ponytail, pigtails, bun, messy bun, twist, bob, ringlets, flip, cornrows, extensions, bangs, buzz, layered, feathered, chopped, gelled, spiked, slicked down.
Lots of hair: thick, full, lustrous, bushy, coarse, wiry, stiff
Little hair: thin, scraggly, fine, baby-fine, downy, wispy, limp, flat, balding, bald, bald spot, receding (gradual loss of hair at the front of the head)
Treated hair: permed, dyed, bleached, highlighted, weaved, streaked, colored
Facial Hair: beard, goatee, mustache, soul patch, sideburns. Beard growth: stubble, fuzz, peach fuzz, bristles, five o’clock shadow (describes new beard growth that’s shadowy in appearance. It’s usually more noticeable late in the day on the jaw, chin, or cheek area, but some men purposely grow five o’clock shadows).
Adjectives: bearded, bushy, stubbly, bristly, scratchy, unshaven, shaggy, whiskered, beardless, clean-shaven, smooth, trimmed, neatly-trimmed, pencil-thin [11].
A Sample of Describing Person’s Face
What if you were asked to describe how something looks – a place, a thing, or a person? How should you arrange your ideas and sentences in the paragraph? Obviously, time order would not be logical. When you are describing the way something looks – its physical appearance – it is not time but space that is important. Therefore, you should arrange your sentences and details according to where the objects being described are located. This type of organization is called spatial organization. In a descriptive paragraph, you must make the location of the objects being described very clear.
A person’s appearance can be described in many ways. It is possible to tell about the person’s style of clothing, manner of walking, color and style of hair, facial appearance, body shape, and expression or even the person’s way of talking. Just what a writer selects to describe depends on the writer’s chosen topic and purpose. No matter what the topic, however, the writer is a painter with words, so the description must be vivid but also coherent – logically arranged – so that the reader can clearly envision who is being described. The following paragraph describes a person’s face with a spatial organization. Look at the following description and see if you can get a good image of what Mary looks like:
“Mary is as beautiful as a Hollywood star. Her thick, wavy, long black hair gracefully falls down to her shoulders and encircles her diamond-shaped face. A golden suntan usually brings out her smooth, clear complexion and high cheek bones. Her slightly arched chestnut brown eyebrows highlight her emotions by moving up and down as she reacts to her world around her. Her large deep blue eyes, remind me of a lake on a stormy day. Her curved nose gives her a little girl look that makes me want to smile when she talks. And her mouth is a small mouth outlined by puffy lips that she often accentuates with glossy pink lipstick. When she smiles, which is often, her well formed and even, white teeth brighten up her whole face. I guess you can tell that I am head over heals in love with Mary.” [12]
By this paragraph, the reader can not only tell what Mary looks like but also what the author’s attitude about her outer appearance is.
Analysis of Adjectives usage in Instagram
The adjectives have been analyzed for frequency of appearance to describe the facial characteristics in Instagram. To perform this, the adjective was searched in Instagram, and the cases for facial characteristics description were calculated amount the first 20 search results. The results are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Adjectives and their use for facial description in Instagram [13]
| Adjective | Quantity among the first 20 results | |
| Absolute number | Frequency, % | |
| Beardless | 17 | 85.7 |
| Bony | 4 | 19.0 |
| Wavy | 4 | 19.0 |
| Kinky | 12 | 61.0 |
| Sleepy | 7 | 33.3 |
| Smooth | 4 | 19.0 |
| Bulbous | 3 | 14.3 |
| Sweet | 2 | 9.5 |
| Sad | 8 | 38.1 |
| Shiny | 4 | 19.0 |
| Amazed | 5 | 23.8 |
| Smiling | 14 | 71.4 |
| sorrowful | 5 | 23.8 |
| Friendly | 4 | 19.0 |
| Dull | 8 | 38.1 |
The Instagram usage illustrates the modern usage of these adjectives. The words beardless, kinky and smiling are preliminary used for facial description, the adjectives sad, sorrowful, and dull have also several other meanings. The other adjectives also describe different personal characteristics, and the facial description is just one of them. Hence, they are polyfuncional.
Face Description in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The word “face” is mentioned 75 times in the novel, and 60 are related to the noun “face”. Table 2 presents the examples and categorization of the adjectives used.
Table 2. The adjectives used for facial expression in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf [14]
| Citation | Frequency | Function |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| “a ridiculous little face”
“little pink face” |
1
2 |
Size |
| Total | 3 / 5% | |
| “button-faced”
“sallow pointed face” |
1
1 |
Form |
| Total | 2 / 3.33% | |
| “pale-face(d)”
“little pink face” “delicate pink face” “small pink face” “with large eyes in a sallow pointed face” “round-eyed, pale-faced girl” “sunburnt face” “pink innocent oval to a face lean,” “very red in the face” |
3
5 1 1 1 1 1 1 |
Color |
| Total | 14 / 23.33% | |
| “a ridiculous little face”
“delicate pink face” “pink innocent oval to a face lean” “contracted, hostile” |
1
1 |
Opinion |
| Total | 2 / 3.33% | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| “worn old face” | 1 | Age |
| Total | 1 / 1.65% | |
| “face, beaked like a bird’s”
“dashed in his face like bunches of roses” |
1
1 |
comparison |
| Total | 2 / 3.33% | |
| “pretty face”
“fine face” “adorably pretty face” |
2
1 1 |
Assessment |
| Total | 4 / 6.67% |