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by Kate Woodford
It’s recently come to my attention that there’s a huge number of English phrases and idioms containing the word ‘face’. There are so many that this is the first of two posts, as ever focusing on the most frequent and useful. I hope you enjoy it!
We’ll deal first with phrases that convey something about the expression on someone’s face. If an emotion is written all over someone’s face, their face very clearly shows it: She was clearly appalled by the idea – it was written all over her face.
In UK English, someone who has a face like thunder or who looks like thunder looks very angry: He walked into here with a face like thunder. / She didn’t say anything but she looked like thunder.
Two ‘face’ expressions are used to convey a look of disappointment. We talk about a long face, meaning ‘a face showing sadness or disappointment’: There’ll be some long faces when I tell the kids the holiday is cancelled. We also say that someone’s face falls when they suddenly look very disappointed and unhappy: I told her Karl wasn’t coming and her face fell.
If you keep a straight face, you manage not to smile or laugh, usually when you are joking: I tried to pretend I was cross with her, but I couldn’t keep a straight face.
In UK English, we sometimes say that someone’s face was a picture, meaning that they looked very surprised, (either because of something good or something bad): Her face was a picture when she saw what he was wearing.
We make (and in UK English also pull) a face when we form a strange or funny expression with our face, often to show that we don’t like something: William looked at his plate and pulled a face.
Other ‘face’ idioms, as you might imagine, relate to how things appear to be on the surface. For example, we say that someone puts a brave face on it (or puts on a brave face) when they are determined not to appear upset, even though they feel it: She must have been disappointed by the news but I think she put a brave face on it.
We use the phrase on the face of it to say how a situation seems when we don’t know all the facts. On the face of it, it seems like a really good offer, but I think we need to look into it.
If you take someone/something at face value, you accept what they seem to be, without questioning them at all: I took her at face value – I saw no reason to doubt what she said.
We’ll continue the ‘face idioms’ theme in a couple of weeks. Be sure to check in with us regularly.
Лицо очень чётко выражает (мимика) человеческие эмоции, такие как боль, радость, разочарование, усталость, беспокойство, злость. -Face very clearly expresses (a mimic) human emotions, such as pain, joy, disappointment, fatigue, anxiety, anger.
Я скрестила руки на груди и постаралась сохранять нейтральное выражение лица, надеясь, что кажусь уверенной и невозмутимой. -I crossed my arms and tried to keep a neutral expression on my face, hoping that I seemed confident and unflappable.
Лица грабителей были закрыты масками ,поэтому служащие банка никого не разглядели и не смогли описать нападавших. – The robbers ‘ faces were covered with masks, so the Bank employees could not see anyone and could not describe the attackers.
После посещения салона красоты мое лицо помолодело на десять лет. – After visiting the beauty salon, my face turned ten years younger.
До чего же мало надо человеку, который постоянно сталкивается лицом к лицу со смертью! -To what little is necessary to a man who is constantly faced with death!
Лицо американца — костистое, очень длинное, с сильно развитой и выдававшейся вперёд челюстью — выбрито до синевы. -The face of the American, bony, very long, with a strongly developed and issued forth a jaw-style house.
● Come face to face with (a: to suddenly meet someone by chance. b: to see or experience a problem for the first time)
a) As I was going into the restaurant, I came face to face with my ex-husband who was just leaving.
a) I was walking home and came face to face with a dinosaur, oh no, it was just a babushka! Sorry, my mistake.
b) It was only after I started working for the charity that I came face to face with poverty.
● Face facts — to be confronted with the truth
— We need to face facts; we are in the middle of the Atlantic, no food and no help and lots of sharks around. The future for us is bleak!
● Face it — to accept a fact
— Paul, let’s face it! You’ll never be a ballerina because you’re too fat!
● Face the consequences — to accept and deal with the results
— Pay your debts now or face the consequences!
● Face the music — to receive punishment; to accept the unpleasant results of one’s actions
— Shit, I burnt down the house and my parents will be back in 5 minutes. Guess it’s time to face the music like a man!
● Face time (a: in prison b:(noun)time spent in a face-to-face meeting with someone)
a) You could face a long time in prison for committing murder.
b) He hoped to get more face time with the president.
● Face up to — to accept that a difficult situation exists
— You are adopted! You will have to face up to the truth someday!
— Don’t let those boys bully you. Face (stand) up to them!
● Face with/to be faced with — to be confronted with
— We are faced with many problems in today’s world and we need to solve them!
He concentrated upon that face; all else about him was a whirling void.
«I’ll meet you outside, after the last act,» Martin whispered, the while his face showed undivided interest in the buck-and-wing dancing on the stage.
It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and had room for more.
As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it.
As I walked close by her and looked keenly into her face, she cast down her eyes and half turned away.
She was very tired and cold, —so tired she seemed hardly to have the spirit to eat, and evidently the cold had taken tight clutch of her lungs, for she had a cough that went to my heart to hear, and her face was ghastly pale.
Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr.
Suddenly we heard a yelp and a volley of furious blasphemy from the companion hatchway, and the deformed man with the black face came up hurriedly.
When he was thirteen and I was half his age the terrible news came, and I have been told the face of my mother was awful in its calmness as she set off to get between Death and her boy.
«Honest, I do,» he hastened to add at sight of her shocked face. «I don’t mean water an’ soap, but look there.» His hand closed reverently but firmly on her arm.
Boris was tall and fair, and his calm and handsome face had regular, delicate features.
The look of surprise on the savage face was almost comical, and before Tarzan could unsling his bow the fellow had turned and fled down the path crying out in alarm as though to others before him.
It is the shadow of pain which touches the young face with such pathetic patience, but Beth seldom complains and always speaks hopefully of `being better soon’.
She could scarce wait for the coming of the day that she might look again upon the bright face of her little, black-eyed Jack.
She drew back from him with aversion, and without looking in his face answered: