face to face

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face-to-face

(fās′tə-fās′)

adj.

Being in the presence of another; facing: a face-to-face discussion.

adv. also face to face

In person; directly: would rather talk face-to-face than negotiate over the telephone.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

face to face

adv, adj (face-to-face as adjective)

1. opposite one another

2. in confrontation

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Adv.

face to face - involving close contact; confronting each other; "the boy and the policeman suddenly came face-to-face at the corner"; "they spoke face to face"

Translations

وَجهاً لِوَجْه

tváří v tvář

von Angesicht zu Angesicht

face à face tête-à-tête

személyesen

augliti til auglitis

faccia a faccia

oog in oog

ansikt til ansikt

tvárou v tvár

yüzyüze

面对面的

face

(feis) noun

1. the front part of the head, from forehead to chin. a beautiful face.

2. a surface especially the front surface. a rock face.

3. in mining, the end of a tunnel etc where work is being done. a coal face.

verb

1. to be opposite to. My house faces the park.

2. to turn, stand etc in the direction of. She faced him across the desk.

3. to meet or accept boldly. to face one's fate.

-faced adjective

having a face of a certain kind. a baby-faced man.

facial (ˈfeiʃəl) adjective

of the face. facial expressions.

facing preposition

opposite. The hotel is facing the church.

facecloth noun

(American washcloth) a piece of cloth for washing the face or body.

ˈfacelift noun

1. an operation to smooth and firm the face. She has had a facelift.

2. a process intended to make a building etc look better. This village will be given a facelift.

ˈface-powder noun

a type of make-up in the form of a fine powder. She put on face-powder to stop her nose shining.

ˈface-saving adjective

of something which helps a person not to look stupid or not to appear to be giving in. He agreed to everything we asked and as a face-saving exercise we offered to consult him occasionally.

face value

the value stated on the face of a coin etc. Some old coins are now worth a great deal more than their face value.

at face value

as being as valuable etc as it appears. You must take this offer at face value.

face the music

to accept punishment or responsibility for something one has done. The child had to face the music after being rude to the teacher.

face to face

in person; in the actual presence of one another. I'd like to meet him face to face some day – I've heard so much about him.

face up to

to meet or accept boldly. She faced up to her difficult situation.

in the face of

having to deal with and in spite of. She succeeded in the face of great difficulties.

lose face

to suffer a loss of respect or reputation. You will really lose face if you are defeated.

make/pull a face

to twist one's face into a strange expression. She pulled faces at the baby to make it laugh.

on the face of it

as it appears at first glance, usually deceptively. On the face of it, the problem was easy.

put a good face on it

to give the appearance of being satisfied etc with something when one is not. Now it's done we'll have to put a good face on it.

save one's face

to avoid appearing stupid or wrong. I refuse to accept the reponsibility for that error just to save your face – it's your fault.

References in classic literature ?

He had come face to face with the first serious check in his career, and it had been dealt him too by the one man whom, of all his associates, he disliked and despised.

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On entering the house he had taken off his mask and imitation beard, then, mounting a staircase, had opened a door, and in a room lighted by a single lamp found himself face to face with a man seated behind a desk.

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Prest, and we stood face to face in the empty pompous hall.

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Now I WAS, I said to myself, face to face with the elements, and for much of the rest of the day, while I fought my weakness, I could consider that I had been supremely rash.

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Now, though his conviction that jealousy was a shameful feeling and that one ought to feel confidence, had not broken down, he felt that he was standing face to face with something illogical and irrational, and did not know what was to be done.

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Started from his slumbers, Ahab, face to face, saw the Parsee; and hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a flooded world.

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It was better that I should not meet him face to face; better to forget him.

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Don't you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?"

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At the corner of Pall Mall we came face to face with Thomson.

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what should be leaving my room, as I advanced to enter it, but--well, it's no use, resolutions are all very well, but facts are facts, especially when they're natural, and here was I face to face with the most natural little natural fact, and withal the most charming and merry-eyed, that-- well, in short, as I came to enter my room I was confronted by the roundest, ruddiest little chambermaid ever created for the trial of mortal frailty.

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Her talk about these things simply emparadised me; it lifted me into a heaven of hope that I, too, might some day meet such elect spirits and converse with them face to face. My mood was sufficiently foolish, but it was not such a frame of mind as I can be ashamed of; and I could wish a boy no happier fortune than to possess it for a time, at least.

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And when I talked face to face with my wild Wisdom, she said to me angrily: "Thou willest, thou cravest, thou lovest; on that account alone dost thou PRAISE Life!"