face
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(fās) 
n.
v., faced, fac·ing, fac·es. v.tr.
n.
- The surface of the front of the head from the top of the forehead to the base of the chin and from ear to ear.
- A person: We saw many new faces on the first day of classes.
- A person's countenance: a happy face.
- A contorted facial expression; a grimace: made a face at the prospect of eating lemons.
- Facial cosmetics: put one's face on.
- Outward appearance: the modern face of the city.
- Value or standing in the eyes of others; prestige: lose face.
- Self-assurance; confidence: The team managed to maintain a firm face even in times of great adversity.
- Effrontery; impudence: had the face to question my judgment.
- The most significant or prominent surface of an object, especially:
- The surface presented to view; the front.
- A façade.
- Outer surface: the face of the earth.
- A marked side: the face of a clock; the face of a playing card.
- The right side, as of fabric.
- An exposed, often precipitous surface of rock.
- A planar surface of a geometric solid.
- Any of the surfaces of a rock or crystal.
- The end, as of a mine or tunnel, at which work is advancing.
- The appearance and geologic surface features of an area of land; topography.
- Printing.
- A typeface or range of typefaces.
- The raised printing surface of a piece of type.
v., faced, fac·ing, fac·es. v.tr.
- To occupy a position with the face toward: stood and faced the audience.
- To front on: a window that faces the south.
- To confront with complete awareness: had to face the facts.
- To overcome by confronting boldly or bravely: "What this generation must do is face its problems" (John F. Kennedy).
- To confront with impudence. See synonyms at defy.
- To be certain to encounter; have in store: An unskilled youth faces a difficult life.
- To bring or to be brought face to face with: "The prospect of military conflict . . . faced us with nightmarish choices" (Henry A. Kissinger).
- To cause (troops) to change direction by giving a command.
- Games. To turn (a playing card) so that the face is up.
- To furnish with a surface or cover of a different material: bronze that is faced with gold foil.
- To line or trim the edge of, especially with contrasting material: face a hem with lace.
- To treat the surface of so as to smooth.
- To be turned or placed with the front toward a specified direction.
- To turn the face in a specified direction.
face down
- To attain mastery over or overcome by confronting in a resolute, determined manner: face down an opponent in a debate; faced the enemy down.
- To start play in ice hockey, lacrosse, and other games by releasing the puck or ball between two opposing players.
- To confront an unpleasant situation with resolution and assurance: had to face up or get out; finally faced up to the problem.
face the music
- To accept the unpleasant consequences, especially of one's own actions.
- In opposition to or defiance of.
- From appearances alone; apparently: On the face of it, the problem seems minor.
- To make an appearance: Don't show your face on my property again.
- In the view or hearing of: insulted me to my face.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *facia, from Latin faciēs.]
faceable face'a·ble adj.
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Front part of the head, extending from the forehead to the chin and housing the eyes, nose, mouth, and jaws. The receding of the jaw and the increasing size of the brain in human evolution has made the face essentially vertical, with two distinctively human features: a prominent, projecting nose and a clearly defined chin. The face and braincase follow different patterns of growth. While the face grows more slowly, it ends up much larger compared to the braincase in adults than at birth. The facial muscles move the features to express emotion.
For more information on face, visit Britannica.com.
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First page of an insurance policy.
| Extraterritoriality, Extra Premium, Extra Percentage Tables | |
| Face Amount (Face of Policy), Facility of Payment Clause, Factory Insurance Association (FIA) |
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The face is the most complex-surface structure of human and other vertebrate anatomy — in humans containing a total of 14 bones and 32 teeth: it includes the frontal bone supporting the forehead; a cartilaginous nasal cavity; prominent cheeks supported by malar bones; circular muscles around the mouth and each eye; other musculature radiating from the circular muscles; a fixed upper jaw (maxilla) and movable lower jaw (mandible) ; and sensory apparatus for vision, hearing, taste and smell.
The human face is commonly seen as the key to identifying individuals and comprehending their emotional states and intentions. Its characteristic structures and expressions have been the focus of much of culture, both East and West, making the face perhaps the most important anatomical subject of mythology, religion, art, and literature. When Marlowe had Faustus ask of Helen,
‘Was this the face that launched a thousand shipsAnd burnt the topless towers of Ilium?’,he echoed the elders of Troy, whom Homer had murmur,
‘Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddesses.’
The terrible beauty of the human face, its potential to reveal and to conceal, its alleged power to disclose essential features of the individual, the race, or the species, its ability to inspire love and motivate acts of utter unreason, together with its capacity for pretence and deception, mark it as a subject of unending interest and complexity.
Physiological and evolutionary development
The human face begins in fetal development as a forehead protrusion above an incipient mouth at approximately four weeks gestational age. At seven months the face has achieved much of its early development — though the proportion of facial surface to cranium; the growth of nasal structures; the eruption of teeth; the fusion of facial skeletal sutures; and the relative facial dimensions in depth, height, and width continue to develop, some well into adolescence.
While it is possible to find evolutionary traces of the modern human face at each stage from early vertebrates to Homo sapiens, facial structures are important boundaries between humans and our prehuman ancestors. The Australopithecenes and other prehumans had relatively large faces in proportion to the size of their heads, whereas modern humans have proportionally smaller faces and larger braincases filled with larger brains. Jaw and tooth structure are less complex and smaller in modern humans, resulting in less protrusive jaws and a more vertical profile. Prominent and distinctive in this profile are the nose and the well-defined chin separating modern humans both from prehuman ancestors and from other, contemporary primates.
Evolutionary variation in facial features has helped physiognomy and physical anthropology attempt to define racial categories. While certain features are more prominent in one geographic racial group than in another, such categorization is not definitive or entirely reliable. Attempts to make such judgments have had profound social consequences, however.
The face in the mirror
The idea that the face both reveals and conceals or masks identity is a very ancient one. In classical drama, great literature, and bank robbery alike, masks obscure or conceal facial features and thus conceal identity. Facial recognition is an early and primary skill; very young infants have been shown to prefer the sight of the human face to other images.
Facial cues have been shown to be vital in several areas of recognition, including age, sex, ethnicity and race, emotional state, honesty and deception, and personal identity. The most important aspect of recognition is that of individual identity. While individual features of a face are important in recognizing other aspects of a person, identifying an individual flows largely from identifying their face as a whole. The ability to pick out one's adult friend from a group photograph taken in his youth seems an unremarkable task and yet requires remarkable powers of discernment. Family resemblance marks faces as of a type, allowing identification of siblings and different generations, but recognizing individuals requires more than specific features. This ability is strongest when one identifies individuals within one's own racial group; research has shown that cross-racial and perhaps cross-ethnic recognition is more difficult than identification within one's own race or ethnicity. Psychologist Leslie Zebrowitz hypothesizes that facial recognition is much like language acquisition, and that early immersion in another racial group may be necessary to facilitate cross-racial identification.
Facial recognition of personal identity appears to have a specific location within the brain. Prosopagnosia, a disorder in which there is a deficit of facial recognition, is caused by lesions in a specific part of the visual system of the brain. Prosopagnosics are often able to identify aspects of faces, but they are unable to recognize persons — sometimes even themselves — by using facial cues. In such cases, identity reverts to other cues, including voice.
Reading faces
Children are usually taught ‘not to judge a book by its cover’, and most adults recognize the ability of a façade — architectural or otherwise — to misrepresent in Potemkin-village fashion what it seeks to conceal. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a commonly-cited example of both the centrality of reading faces for the meaning they represent and the difficulty of doing so. Despite this, psychological research and the clear evidence of artistic and literary experience demonstrate that our judgments of physical, mental, and moral health often proceed from the first glance of facial appearance.
A remark to a friend that she doesn't ‘look’ well is usually an elliptical reference to the friend's facial appearance. Traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine use facial appearance as a key diagnostic indicator. In contemporary Western medicine, the term ‘facies’ is used to describe the general facial appearance of a patient, especially useful in the diagnosis of disorders marked by phenotypic facial characteristics. Some of these conditions (for example, Down's syndrome and Patau syndrome), are caused by genetic anomalies and produce serious physical and mental abnormalities, while others (fetal alcohol syndrome, for example) are congenital in nature, and still others (syphilis and measles, for example) are caused by infectious agents.
Genetically-linked and congenital disorders are often associated not only with specific facial anomalies but also with a general tendency toward facial asymmetry. Many infectious diseases produce distinctive facial appearances that are helpful and sometimes central to diagnosis. Parents know that, at first (facial) glance, the indication of a child's common cold or fever is found in changes in facial appearance. Beyond changes in appearance caused by diseases or disorders, correlations have been suggested between specific facial structural types and certain diseases, including polio and some types of ulcer. Some evolutionary theorists have gone beyond these results in asserting a correlation between facial asymmetry and an increased susceptibility to infectious and genetically-linked disease. The experimental evidence for this claim is inconclusive.
The evidence linking specific facial appearances both with underlying causal disorders and increased vulnerability to specific conditions is slightly better, however, especially where the facial characteristics and expressions are indicative of living patterns and personality types. The veined, red nose associated with chronic alcoholism and the frequent scowls, raising of upper eyelids, and tensing of eyes of a ‘Type A’ personality can help diagnose their immediate causes. Even here, however, one must be careful, since these same facial characteristics can be caused by other conditions: the red nose of the ‘alcoholic’ could indicate instead the skin disease rosacea, or even something as simple as a bad cold or allergies. Likewise, the scowls and other features of the ‘Type A’ may indicate specific neurological damage or, if one is observing a single instance, simply a bad case of indignation or even indigestion.
Ordinary experience and results in experimental psychology demonstrate that many people judge the mental or moral health of others by their facial structures and expressions. Classical Greek medicine attributed many mental (especially emotional) disorders to an imbalance of the four humours (blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile) and, in a forerunner of the contemporary use of ‘facies’, diagnosed mental and physical disorders in part by the surface expressions of the imbalance of colour or physical shape in the face. The development of physiognomy as an explanatory framework for describing and predicting psychological (and later social and moral) conditions on the basis of facial and other physical conformation provides a more subtle if no less flawed understanding than the theory of the four humours. A work attributed to Aristotle (Physiognomonica) gives the first recorded systematic treatment of physiognomic principles, with both a description of the diagnostic method and a catalogue of results. Aristotle's treatment of the topic relies on analogies to the facial characteristics of animals, a practice nearly universal in human culture. Greek mythology and art, astrological traditions, medieval bestiaries and heraldry, children's fables, personal naming practices in Native American and other cultures, and many colloquial expressions (‘a face like a dumb ox’) all make use of such analogies. Classical references attempt to describe the systematic correlation between face and mind, while medieval efforts joined description to prediction.
By the eighteenth century, physiognomy had assimilated many modern advances in biology, especially improvements in anatomical knowledge. By the end of that century and throughout the nineteenth century, physiognomists developed a theory of mental, moral, and especially evolutionary fitness that could be determined in large part by facial characteristics. Swiss physiognomist J. C. Lavater's 1772 work on reading faces was very influential. (Charles Darwin relates the story of how he was nearly denied passage on HMS Beagle because the captain, influenced by Lavater's views, was convinced that the shape of Darwin's nose indicated insufficient ‘energy’ and ‘determination’ for the voyage.) Textbooks in psychiatry and criminology regularly assumed the truth of these theories. In one recently cited example, Krafft-Ebing's 1879 textbook on insanity claimed that ‘every psychopathic state, like the physiologic states of emotion, has its own peculiar facial expression and general manner of movement which, for the experienced, on superficial observation, makes a probable diagnosis possible.’ Illustrations in such texts provided carefully categorized examples of such correspondences.
Reading faces as a way of detecting criminality and moral or social degeneracy is an important aspect of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century physiognomy. The Italian physician and criminologist Cesare Lombroso saw criminality (for the most part) as an atavism, with the natural criminal one who ‘reproduces in his person the ferocious instincts of primitive humanity and the inferior animals.’ The marks, the stigmata — as Lombroso revealingly termed them — of the criminal type once again reflect the analogy with animal types. Lombroso found the stigmata concentrated both in ‘primitive’ non-European races and in Europeans from the lowest socio-economic classes. While the stigmata include features of the feet, arms, hair type, etc., the most significant are facial or facially-related. The frontispiece to his work Criminal Man is a veritable rogue's gallery of facial types, arranged by the type of crime to which their anatomical destiny condemned them. Stephen Jay Gould's critique of Lombroso lists the facial stigmata of the criminal man, including large jaw size, high face-to-cranium proportions, pronounced wrinkles, a less prominent forehead, large ears, and darker skin. This last feature reveals the assumptions colouring much of Lombroso's pseudo-science and by extension much of criminal anthropology and physiognomy: natural criminality and natural superiority coincided very nicely with then-existing assumptions about natural hierarchies in intellectual, social, political, and economic life. One's face, together with other salient physical features, truly was one's destiny, and while the natural criminal is not to be blamed in any ultimate sense, neither could he be changed. ‘We see in the criminal man, ’ Lombroso wrote, ‘a savage man and, at the same time, a sick man.’ These ‘sick men’ were ‘true savages in the midst of our brilliant European civilization’. Such biological determinism was very influential at the end of the nineteenth century and helped pave the way for the early-to-mid twentieth-century eugenics movement that marked the naturally (physiologically, culturally, morally, racially) defective for passive elimination by controlled breeding or, as in the hands of Nazi racial theorists, for active elimination in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
While the theory of the humours is a quaint antiquity and the sometimes pernicious theories of physiognomy have been dismissed by modern science, it is clear that many continue to read physical, mental, and moral health in faces. The long and deeply held view that the face reveals essential aspects of the self, that facial cues tell us more than science is willing to admit, remains. Schopenhauer's comment on the subject, that ‘as a rule a man's face … is the monogram of all his thoughts and aspirations’ is more reflective of how we actually live than many of us care to acknowledge.
A smooth impostor or the motions of the mind?
The face has been exploited in its essential ambiguity in culture generally, and in art and literature in particular. Portraiture no less than caricature draws upon generalizations about human nature and character to depict the face as concealer and revealer, and Western literature has used the set of a face to paint the intellectual, emotional, and moral scenes of its dramas. To be faceless is to be without identity and thus without weight, and yet artistic and literary portrayals of the face often fail to deliver on the promise of portraying a clear and unambiguous identity. Da Vinci's characterization of his portraits as depicting ‘the motions of the mind’ sits face-to-face with Pierre Corneille's remark that:
The face is often only
A smooth impostor.
In addition to the attempt to describe through portrayal the emotional reality of the subject, the art of the face has been put to other purposes. Idealized political types, psychological traits, and moral principles have been conveyed through artistic representations of the face since ancient times, serving political, religious, and commercial ideals. From the distorted Paleolithic faces on the cave walls at Les Trois Frères in southern France, which may have had a magical function; to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian use of the face in art, serving in large part religious and political purposes; to classical Greek depictions of an aesthetic ideal; to iconography and religious art in the Christian world; to nineteenth- and twentieth-century ‘faces’ of liberty and revolution; to the modern use of well-scrubbed young faces in commercial advertising, the human face has been a vehicle for both artist and society, giving form to their ideals.
In some contemporary philosophy the face has taken on a new and important role, though one that echoes earlier humanisms. In the twilight of postmodernism, some philosophers in the European continental tradition are looking to the human face as a, if not the, mark of the ethical. Emmanuel Levinas has stated that
‘the other becomes my neighbor precisely through the way the face summons me, calls for me, begs for me, and so doing recalls my responsibility, and calls me into question.’
Levinas points to the twentieth century's remarkable accomplishments in defacing or effacing individuals, both in body and in spirit, and points out that ethical individuality is accomplished — if it is accomplished — only in the gaze of the other, of the ‘epiphany of the face as a face’. Perhaps the terrible beauty of the face can find its ethical reflection in the mirror of the other. It is sure to retain its ambiguity, its complexity, and its centrality in human life.
— Jeffrey H. Barker
Bibliography
- Davies, G. et al., (1981). Perceiving and remembering faces. Academic Press, London.
- Ekman, P. (1973). Darwin and facial expression. Academic Press, New York.
- Gould, S. J. (1981). The mismeasure of man. W. W. Norton and Company, New York.
- Zebrowitz, L. A. (1997). Reading faces. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado
See also physiognomy; skull.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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face
noun
- The front surface of the head: countenance, feature (often used in plural), muzzle, visage. Informal mug. Slang kisser, map, pan, puss. See precede/follow.
- A disposition of the facial features that conveys meaning, feeling, or mood: aspect, cast, countenance, expression, look, visage. See express.
- A facial contortion indicating displeasure, disgust, or pain: grimace, moue, mouth, pout. Informal mug. See express.
- An outward appearance: aspect, countenance, look, physiognomy, surface, visage. See surface/depth.
- The level of credit or respect at which one is regarded by others: prestige, standing, status. See respect/contempt/standing.
- The state or quality of being impudent or arrogantly self-confident: assumption, audaciousness, audacity, boldness, brashness, brazenness, cheek, cheekiness, chutzpah, discourtesy, disrespect, effrontery, familiarity, forwardness, gall1, impertinence, impudence, impudency, incivility, insolence, nerve, nerviness, overconfidence, pertness, presumptuousness, pushiness, rudeness, sassiness, sauciness. Informal brass, crust, sauce, uppishness, uppityness. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, courtesy/discourtesy.
- The forward outer surface of a building: façade, front, frontage, frontal. Architecture frontispiece. See precede/follow.
- A deceptive outward appearance: cloak, color, coloring, cover, disguise, disguisement, façade, false colors, front, gloss, guise, mask, masquerade, pretense, pretext, semblance, show, veil, veneer, window-dressing. Slang put-on. See show/hide.
- The outer layer of an object: surface, top. See surface/depth.
- The marked outer surface of an instrument: dial. See precede/follow.
verb
- To have the face or front turned in a specific direction: front, look (on or upon). See precede/follow.
- To confront boldly and courageously: beard, brave, challenge, dare, defy, front. Idioms: fly in the face of, snap one's fingers at, stand up to, thumb one's nose at. See resist/yield.
- To meet face-to-face, especially defiantly: accost, confront, encounter, front. See meet.
- To come up against: confront, encounter, meet1, run into. See meet.
- To furnish with a covering of a different material: clad, cover, sheathe, side, skin. See surface/depth.
Idioms beginning with face:
face up
face the music
face up to
face with
See also at face value; blue in the face; brave face; do an about-face; egg on one's face; feed one's face; fly in the face of; hide one's face; in someone's face; in the face of; in your face; keep a straight face; laugh out of the other side of one's mouth (face); long face; look someone in the face; lose face; make a face; on the face of it; plain as day (the nose on your face); poker face; put one's face on; red in the face; save face; set one's face against; show one's face; slap in the face; stare in the face; stuff one's face; talk one's arm off (until blue in the face); throw in someone's face; to someone's face.
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n
Definition: front of something; expression, exterior
Antonyms: back, behind, rear, reverse, underside
n
Definition: pretense
Antonyms: character, personality, shyness, timidity
v
Definition: be opposite; look at
Antonyms: back, turn away
v
Definition: come up against situation
Antonyms: hide, retreat, run, withdraw
v. (of a soldier) turn in a particular direction: the men had faced about to the front.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
Certain physical features are persistently, and irrationally, seen as clues to inner character: a high domed forehead indicating intelligence, a receding chin stupidity and cowardice, a jutting jaw bad temper, close-set eyes dishonesty, thick lips sensuality, etc. The size of a man's nose and a woman's mouth are said to correspond to that of their sexual organs—sometimes seriously, often in jest.
Some minor forms of fortune-telling were based on the face. The presence and position of moles and dimples was considered significant; E. M. Wright collected the following predictions of poverty or wealth, of which the first two were still known in 1958:
A dimple in your cheek,
Your living to seek
(Yorkshire)
A dimple in your chin,
You'll have your living brought in
(Yorkshire)
If you've a mole above your chin
You'll never be beholden to your kin
(Shropshire)
and also a Lancashire belief that a mole on the side of the nose was a sign that the Devil has marked you for his own (Wright, 1913: 224). Others reported that ‘it is the opinion of nurses that babies who have dimples have short tongues, and will lisp’ (N&Q 5s:9 (1878), 466).
See also EARS, EYEBROWS, EYELASH, EYES, MOLES, MOUTH, NOSE.Opie and Tatem, 1989: 119, 288; Lean, 1903:
1. The exposed surface of a wall, masonry unit, or sheet of material. 2. The surface of a unit designed to be exposed, as in finished masonry, or plywood having one side which is finished.
3. The broad surface of a board, timber, or panel.
4. The exposed vertical surface of an arch.
5. The striking surface of a hammer. 6. During a construction operation in a tunnel, the surface being excavated.
7. To install a surface layer of one material on another, as to face a concrete block wall with brick.
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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
The external appearance or surface of anything; that which is readily observable by a spectator. The words contained in a document in their plain or obvious meaning without regard to external evidence or facts.
The term is applied most frequently in business law to mean the apparent meaning of a contract, paper, bill, bond, record, or other such legal document. A document might appear to be valid on its face, but circumstances may modify or explain it, and its meaning or validity can be altered.
Word Tutor:
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face
IN BRIEF: The front part of the head.
Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart.
— Kahlil Gibran, (1883-1931), Lebanese mystical poet, philosopher and painter.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
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as in: the body part
sign description: The index finger makes a circular motion around the face.
sign description: The index finger makes a circular motion around the face.
Quotes About:
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Faces
Quotes:
"Tom's great yellow bronze mask all draped upon an iron framework. An inhibited, nerve-drawn; dropped face -- as if hung on a scaffold of heavy private brooding; and thought."
- Virginia Woolf
"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
- Oscar Wilde
"This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat."
- Walt Whitman
"Clowns wear a face that's painted intentionally on them so they appear to be happy or sad. What kind of mask are you wearing today?"
- Source Unknown
"The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness."
- Source Unknown
"God had given you one face, and you make yourself another. [Hamlet]"
- William Shakespeare
See more famous quotes about Faces
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If we see our own face in a dream, it can represent concerns about our self-image and how others see us. The dream also could be drawing on associations with common idioms, such as "to lose face," "face the facts," "face the music," "poker face," and "face value."
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i. The surface of the propeller that strikes the air as the propeller rotates. The face of the propeller “faces” the pilot in single-engine airplanes. It corresponds to the bottom of an aircraft wing. Also known as a pressure face.
ii. The open end of a duct ready to be joined to the next duct.
iii. In imagery, the emulsion side of a negative or layout plate or the printing surface of a plate.
ii. The open end of a duct ready to be joined to the next duct.
iii. In imagery, the emulsion side of a negative or layout plate or the printing surface of a plate.
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1. the anterior aspect of the head from the forehead to the chin, inclusive.
2. any presenting aspect or surface.
- f. fly — Musca autumnalis, a vector for infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis in the USA.
- f. louse — linognathus ovillus.
- f. mask — used in the semi-open method of anesthesia which ensures that all of the inspired air and gas passes through a mask and is exited to the atmosphere. Several patent masks are available for use in animals, e.g. Cox and Schimmelbush masks.
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n
The front of the head from the chin to the brow, including the skin and muscles and structures of the forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, and jaw.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'face'
- Head and Neck - face: front of head beneath hairline, including eyes, nose, mouth, and chin
- Aspects and Components of Appearance - face: front of head including chin, mouth, nose, cheeks, eyes, ears, and forehead
- Mining - face: front or end of excavation and location of mined substance
- Windows, Walls, and Facades - face: facade
- Hockey
- Verbs of Sight - face: look at directly
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Face (professional wrestling)
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
In professional wrestling, a face or babyface (in British Wrestling traditionally referred to as a blue-eye, and in Lucha libre as a technico or técnico) is a character who is portrayed as a heroic relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains.[1] Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic: faces need only to be cheered by the audience to be effective characters. The vast majority of wrestling storylines place a face against a heel.
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Contents
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History
Traditional faces are classic "good guy" characters who do not break the rules, follow instructions of those in authority such as the referee, are polite and well-mannered towards the fans, and often overcome the rule-breaking actions of their heel opponents to cleanly win matches.[citation needed] While many modern faces still fit this model, other versions of the face character are now also common.[further explanation needed]
The portrayal of face wrestlers changed in the 1990s with the birth of Extreme Championship Wrestling, the start of World Championship Wrestling's nWo storyline, and The Attitude Era of the World Wrestling Federation.[citation needed] During this time, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Sting used tactics traditionally associated with heels but remained popular with the fans.[citation needed] Although wrestlers such as Dick the Bruiser, Crusher and Freddie Blassie had been faces while using such tactics well before this, the Attitude Era is usually credited with this new kind of face.[citation needed]
Conversely, Kurt Angle was introduced to the World Wrestling Federation with an American hero gimmick based on his gold medal win at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He presented himself as a role model and stressed the need to work hard to realize one's dreams.[citation needed] Although such a personality appears appropriate for a face wrestler, Angle's character was arrogant and constantly reminded people of his Olympic glory, behaving as if he thought he was better than the fans.[2] Angle's character served as a meta-reference to how wrestling had changed. Although his character was intended to be a heel and behaved accordingly, some commentators speculated that if Angle attempted to get over as a face using a more heroic version of the same character, he would have failed. Notably, Angle did not use any of these heroic mannerisms when playing a face character, instead acting as somewhat of an antihero with a few elements of the "lovable loser" character archetype.[citation needed]
Fans sometimes boo face wrestlers despite the way they are promoted. Some reasons this may occur include repetitive in-ring antics, a limited moveset, a lengthy title reign, lack of selling his/her opponents' moves, or an uninteresting character. This often results in wrestlers who are supposed to be cheered receiving a negative or no reaction from the fans. The Rock, who initially wrestled as Rocky Maivia (November 1996 to August 1997), was depicted as a classic face, but the fans despised him.[3] His constant attempts to get the crowd on his side struck them as obsequiousness and made him even less popular.[citation needed] Ironically, The Rock would achieve widespread popularity among fans when he took heel turns, during which his attempts to humorously mock the crowd would often be met with cheers. John Cena has a history of receiving mixed reactions and even full heat from crowds despite being presented as a face.[citation needed]
Some face wrestlers would often give high fives or give out their own personal merchandise while entering the ring before their match, such as t-shirts, sunglasses, hats, masks, etc. to the fans. Bret Hart was one of first superstars to make this popular as he would drape his signature sunglasses to a child in the audience. Rey Mysterio, who has been a face in the WWE since his debut would go to any fan (mostly a child) in a Rey Mysterio mask and touch their head with his head for good luck before wrestling.
A lot of the time, heels get disqualified from matches to keep titles, have an attitude, and attack faces during backstage interviews. Some wrestlers stay face or heel for a long time, while others change at least once a year. Duration of persona is different for every wrestler.
See also
Notes
- ^ Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.2)
- ^ Kamchen, Richard; Milner, John. "Kurt Angle". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/angle.html. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
- ^ Milner, John. "The Rock". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/rock.html. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
References
- Foley, Mick (2000). Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. pp. 511. ISBN 0-06-103101-1.
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Face
Dansk (Danish)
n. - ansigt, forside, overflade, pålydende
v. tr. - trodse, se i øjnene, stå over for, vende forsiden mod
v. intr. - vende sig, vende ansigtet mod
idioms:
- face cream ansigtscreme
- face down trodse, se i øjnene
- face facts se fakta i øjnene
- face the consequences tage konsekvenserne
- face the music tage skraldet
- face to face ansigt til ansigt
- face up to se i øjnene
- face value pålydende
- face with forsyne med, beklæde, belægge
- in the face of over for, trods
- make faces lave ansigter
- pull faces skære grimasser
- save face redde ansigt
- to his face direkte
Nederlands (Dutch)
onder ogen zien, (onverschrokken) tegemoet treden, bekleden of beleggen, zomen, zich wenden naar, schuren, geconfronteerd worden met, bepaalde richting opdraaien, speelkaart naar boven omdraaien, het spel met een face-off beginnen, gezicht, aangezicht, façade, make-up, (zelf) vertrouwen, brutaliteit, (voor)zijde/-kant, prestige, persoon, gezichtsuitdrukking, buitenkant (figuurlijk), wijzerplaat rood aanlopen voor de voeten werpen
Français (French)
n. - visage, face, (fig) face/visage de, (Géol) face, face (d'une pierre précieuse), surface (de la planète), recto (d'un document), (Imprim) ¯il
v. tr. - regarder, donner sur, faire face à, (Imprim, Édit) être face à, être orienté (un bâtiment), se trouver face à, se retrouver face à (une équipe), affronter, devoir faire (qch), se voir contraint de payer (une amende), se trouver confronté à, être contraint de prendre/de faire, risquer, (Constr) revêtir, (Cout) mettre des parements/des revers à
v. intr. - regarder, être tourné vers, donner sur, être (de face/de dos)
idioms:
- be faced with se trouver confronté à, être face à (une décision), devoir faire, être devant la (perspective)
- face cream crème pour le visage
- face down battre (qn), être opposé à (qn), (US) défier du regard
- face down être à plat ventre
- face facts affronter la réalité
- face off (Sport) remettre en jeu (hockey sur glace), (US) être confronté à qn
- face the consequences accepter/faire face aux conséquences
- face the music affronter l'orage
- face to face se retrouver face à, être assis face à face, (rencontrer) qn en face-à-face, (dire qch à qn) en face, (mettre deux personnes ) en présence
- face up être sur le dos
- face up to affronter
- face value valeur nominale, (fig) apparence, apparence trompeuse, (prendre qch) au pied de la lettre, (prendre qch) pour argent comptant
- get out of someone's face partir, cesser d'harceler qn
- in face of face à, devant, en présence de
- in one's face à la figure de (qn)
- in the face of à la face de, (être) face à, en dépit de, (être) devant (un danger, une opposition)
- make faces faire des grimaces, grimacer
- off one's face en son absence
- on the face of it à première vue
- pull faces faire des grimaces
- put one's face on se maquiller (fam)
- save face sauver la face
- to someone's face en face de qn
Deutsch (German)
n. - Gesicht, Zifferblatt, Vorderseite, Wand
v. - sich zuwenden, gegenübertreten, ins Auge sehen, verkleiden
idioms:
- be faced with gegenüber stehen
- face cream Gesichtscreme
- face down mit dem Gesicht od. der Vorderseite nach unten
- face facts sich den Fakten stellen
- face off Gegenüberstellung, die, Bully, das
- face the consequences die Folgen tragen
- face the music (slang) die Suppe auslöffeln
- face to face Angesicht zu Angesicht, gegenüber
- face up auf dem Rücken
- face up to ins Auge sehen
- face value Nennwert
- get out of someone's face verschwinde! (ugs)
- in face of trotz, vor
- in one's face vor der Nase, ins Gesicht
- in the face of trotz
- make faces das Gesicht zu Grimassen verziehen
- off one's face besoffen sein, einen in der Krone haben (salopp)
- on the face of it dem Anschein nach
- pull faces Grimassen schneiden
- put one's face on sich anmalen (ugs.)
- save face das Gesicht wahren
- to someone's face jdm. etwas ins Gesicht sagen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πρόσωπο, φάτσα, μούρη, ύφος, έκφραση (προσώπου), μορφασμός (κν. γκριμάτσα), φυσιογνωμία, δίσκος, πλάκα (ρολογιού), επιφάνεια (γης), πρόσοψη (κν. φάτσα), γόητρο, κύρος
v. - αντιμετωπίζω (ευθαρσώς), αντικρίζω, στρέφω (προς), γυρίζω, βλέπω (προς), έχω θέα (προς)
idioms:
- face cream καλλυντική κρέμα προσώπου
- face down μπρούμυτα, πρηνηδόν
- face facts βλέπω τα πράγματα όπως είναι
- face the consequences αντιμετωπίζω τις συνέπειες
- face the music ακούω τα σκολιανά μου, αναλαμβάνω την ευθύνη των πράξεών μου
- face to face πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο, τετ-α-τετ
- face up to αντιμετωπίζω ευθαρσώς
- face value (οικον.) ονομαστική αξία
- face with παρουσιάζω
- in the face of ενώπιον, μπροστά σε
- look someone in the face κοιτάζω κάποιον κατά πρόσωπο
- make faces κάνω γκριμάτσες
- pull faces κάνω (κοροϊδευτικές) γκριμάτσες
- save face διασώζω το γόητρο/κύρος μου
- to his face κατάμουτρα
Italiano (Italian)
far fronte a, fronteggiare, faccia, viso, volto, aspetto, aria, prestigio, quadrante
idioms:
- become red in the face arrossire
- face cream crema per il viso
- face down con la faccia in giù
- face facts far fronte ai fatti
- face the music affrontare la realtà
- face to face faccia a faccia
- face up to far fronte a, andare incontro, fronteggiare
- face value valore nominale
- face with mettere di fronte a
- in the face of di fronte a, a dispetto di
- lose one's face far brutta figura
- make faces fare smorfie, fare le boccacce
- pull faces fare le boccacce, fare smorfie
- save face salvare le apparenze, salvarsi la faccia
- throw in someone's face rinfacciare
- to his face chiaro e tondo
Português (Portuguese)
n. - face (f), superfície (f)
v. - encarar, estar voltado para
idioms:
- become red in the face enrubescer
- face cream creme (m) facial
- face down estar com a cabeça ou o rosto para baixo, encarar ou vencer com coragem
- face facts encarar os fatos
- face the music encarar uma situação
- face to face cara a cara
- face up to enfrentar com coragem
- face value valor nominal (Com.)
- face with confrontar
- in the face of diante de, apesar de
- lose one's face perder o prestígio
- make faces desaprovar
- pull faces fazer caretas engraçadas
- save face salvar as aparências
- throw in someone's face jogar na cara de alguém
- to his face na presença dele
Русский (Russian)
быть обращенным к, встречать смело, отделывать, лицо, внешность, аспект, циферблат, престиж
idioms:
- become red in the face краснеть
- face cream крем для лица
- face down запугать, осадить
- face facts считаться с фактами
- face the music храбро встречать трудности, расплачиваться
- face to face лицом к лицу
- face up to встречать смело, признать откровенно, справиться
- face value видимая ценность
- face with оказаться перед
- in the face of вопреки, под угрозой, несмотря
- lose one's face терять лицо, терять престиж
- make faces строить гримасы
- pull faces строить гримасы
- save face сохранить лицо, сохранить престиж
- throw in someone's face бросить в лицо, сказать прямо
- to his face прямо
Español (Spanish)
n. - cara, rostro, semblante, aspecto, cariz, prestigio, faz, superficie, esfera
v. tr. - volverse o mirar hacia, hacer cara o frente, encarar
v. intr. - volver la cara, dar frente
idioms:
- be faced with enfrentarse a
- face cream crema de belleza, crema para el cutis
- face down boca abajo, hacer frente a
- face facts enfrentarse con los hechos, hacer frente, afrontar
- face off una confrontación abierta
- face the consequences aceptar las consecuencias
- face the music afrontar las consecuencias
- face to face cara a cara, frente a frente
- face up enfrentarse con, hacer frente, con la cara hacia arriba
- face up to enfrentarse con, hacer frente, soportar valerosamente
- face value valor nominal
- get out of someone's face parar de molestar o incomodar a alguien
- in face of enfrentarse a algo, confrontado con, a pesar de, haciendo frente a
- in one's face en tu cara, abiertamente
- in the face of a pesar de, haciendo frente a
- make faces hacer muecas
- off one's face borracho o drogado
- on the face of it a primera vista
- pull faces hacer muecas
- put one's face on ponerse maquillaje
- save face salvar las apariencias, evitar una humillación
- to someone's face hablar, etc. abiertamente
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ansikte, uppsyn, utseende, yta, framsida på byggnad (även fasad), urtavla, tryckyta på typ (typogr.)
v. - (modigt) möta, vara beredd på
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
脸, 正面, 面容, 面对, 承认, 朝, 向
idioms:
- face cream 面霜
- face down 正面向下
- face facts 面对事实
- face the consequences 面对后果
- face the music 勇于承担责任, 临危不惧
- face to face 面对面, 面对着面对面, 面对着
- face up to 勇敢地对付, 面对事实
- face value 字面意义, 表面价值, 面额, 票面价值
- face with 面临
- in the face of 面对
- make faces 扮鬼脸
- pull faces 扮鬼脸
- save face 扳回颜面, 保留面子
- to his face 当着某人的面, 直率地
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 臉, 正面, 面容
v. tr. - 面對, 承認, 朝
v. intr. - 朝, 向
idioms:
- face cream 面霜
- face down 正面向下
- face facts 面對事實
- face the consequences 面對後果
- face the music 勇於承擔責任, 臨危不懼
- face to face 面對面, 面對著面對面, 面對著
- face up to 勇敢地對付, 面對事實
- face value 字面意義, 表面價值, 面額, 票面價值
- face with 面臨
- in the face of 面對
- make faces 扮鬼臉
- pull faces 扮鬼臉
- save face 扳回顏面, 保留面子
- to his face 當著某人的面, 直率地
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 얼굴, 표정, (기구기계)쓰는 쪽, 겉모양
v. tr. - 마주보다, 면하다, 대항하다, 겉치장하다
v. intr. - (건물방향으로) 향하다, 방향 전환하다
idioms:
- face down 엎드려서 머리를 숙이고
- face up to 두려움 없이 대들다
- face with ~와 마주 대하여
- in the face of ~의 정면에서
- make faces 얼굴을 찌푸리다
- to his face 맞대놓고, 눈앞에서
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 顔, 顔つき, 外観, 表面, 正面, 面の皮, 面目
v. - 面する, 直面する, 迫る, 縁取りをする, 上塗りする, 向く, 化粧張りする
idioms:
- face cream 美顔用化粧クリーム
- face down 顔を下げて, 表を下にして
- face facts 事実に直面する
- face the music 進んで責任を取る
- face to face 面と向かって, 直面して
- face up to 承認する, 真正面から迫る
- face value 額面, 額面上の価値
- face with と向かいあう
- in the face of …とまともに, ものともせずに, …にもかかわらず
- in your face 表情で, 顔に
- make faces 顰めっ面をする
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) وجه (فعل) يواجه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - פנים, פרצוף, הופעה חיצונית, הצד המתפקד של מכשיר וכו', הערכה
v. tr. - התייצב מול, כיסה, היה מול, התעמת עם, ציפה
v. intr. - הסתובב או גרם להסתובב
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