face someone down to overcome someone
by being bold; to disconcert someone by
displaying great confidence.
teacher faced the angry student down
without saying anything. T The mayor
couldn’t face down the entire city council.
face the music to receive punishment; to
accept the unpleasant results of one’s ac-
tions. Mary broke a dining-room win-
dow and had to face the music when her
father got home. After failing a math
test, Tom had to go home and face the
music.
face-to-face 1. in person; in the same lo-
cation. (Said only of people. An adverb.)
Let’s talk about this face-to-face. I don’t
like talking over the telephone. Many
people prefer to talk face-to-face. 2. fac-
ing one another; in the same location.
I prefer to have a face-to-face meeting.
They work better on a face-to-face basis.
the facts of life 1. the facts of sex and re-
production, especially human reproduc-
tion. (See also birds and the bees.) My
parents told me the facts of life when I was
nine years old. Bill learned the facts of
life from his classmates. 2. the truth about
the unpleasant ways that the world
works. Mary really learned the facts of
life when she got her first job. Tom
couldn’t accept the facts of life in business,
so he quit.
fair and impartial fair and unbiased. (Usu-
ally referring to some aspect of the legal
system, such as a jury, a hearing, or a
Gary felt that he had not re-
ceived a fair and impartial hearing. We
demand that all of our judges be fair and
impartial in every instance.
fair and square completely fair(ly).
won the game fair and square. The di-
vision of the money should be fair and
square.
fair game someone or something that it is
quite permissible to attack. I don’t like
seeing articles exposing people’s private
lives, but politicians are fair game. Jour-
nalists always regard movie stars as fair
game.
fair-haired boy a favored person. (Not
necessarily young or male.)
teacher’s fair-haired boy always does well
on tests. The supervisor’s son was the
fair-haired boy on the construction site.
[fair share] Go to one’s fair share.
fair to middling only fair or okay; a little
better than acceptable. (Folksy.) I don’t
feel sick, just fair to middling. The play
wasn’t really good. It was just fair to
middling.
fair-weather friend someone who is your
friend only when things are going well for
you. (This person will desert you when
things go badly for you. Compare this
with A friend in need is a friend indeed.)
Bill wouldn’t help me with my home-
work. He’s just a fair-weather friend. A
fair-weather friend isn’t much help in an
emergency.
fall afoul of someone or something and run
afoul of someone or something to get into a
situation where one is opposed to some-
one or something; to get into trouble
with someone or something. Dan fell
afoul of the law at an early age. I hope
that you will avoid falling afoul of the dis-
trict manager. She can be a formidable en-
emy. I hope I don’t run afoul of your sis-
ter. She doesn’t like me.
fall (all) over oneself to behave awkwardly
and eagerly when doing something. (See
also fall over backwards (to do something).)
Tom fell all over himself trying to make
Jane feel at home. I fall over myself
when I’m doing something that makes me
nervous.
fall all over someone to give a lot of atten-
tion, affection, or praise to someone. (In-
formal.) My aunt falls all over me
whenever she comes to visit. I hate for
someone to fall all over me. It embarrasses
me.
fall apart at the seams [for something] to
break into pieces; to fall apart; [for ma-
terial that is sewn together] to separate at
the seams. (Literal for cloth, otherwise
figurative. See also come apart at the
seams.) My new jacket fell apart at the
seams. This old car is about ready to fall
apart at the seams.
fall asleep to go to sleep. The baby cried
and cried and finally fell asleep. Tom fell
asleep in class yesterday.
fall back on someone or something to turn to
someone or something for help. (Also lit-
eral.) Bill fell back on his brother for
help. John ran out of ink and had to fall
back on his pencil.
fall between two stools to come some-
where between two possibilities and so
fail to meet the requirements of either.
The material is not suitable for an acade-
mic book or for a popular one. It falls be-
tween two stools. He tries to be both
teacher and friend, but falls between two
stools.
fall down on the job to fail to do some-
thing properly; to fail to do one’s job ad-
equately. (Also literal referring to an ac-
cident while one is working.) The team
kept losing because the coach was falling
down on the job. Tom was fired because
he fell down on the job.
fall flat (on its face) Go to fall flat (on one’s
face).
fall flat (on one’s face) and fall flat (on
its face) to be completely unsuccessful.
(Informal.) I fell f lat on my face when
I tried to give my speech. The play fell
f lat on its face. My jokes fall f lat most
of the time.
fall for someone or something 1. [with some-
one] to fall in love with someone. Tom
fell for Ann after only two dates. He wants
to marry her. Some men always fall for
women with blond hair. 2. [with some-
thing] to be deceived by something. I
can’t believe you fell for that old trick.
Jane didn’t fall for Ann’s story.
fall from grace to cease to be held in favor,
especially because of some wrong or fool-
ish action. He was the teacher’s pet un-
til he fell from grace by failing the history
test. Mary was the favorite grandchild
until she fell from grace by running away
from home.
fall head over heels to fall down, perhaps
turning over or rolling. (Also literal.)
Fred tripped on the rug and fell head over
heels into the center of the room. Slow
down or you will fall down—head over
heels.
fall head over heels in love (with some-
one) to fall deeply in love with someone,
perhaps suddenly. Roger fell head over
heels in love with Maggie, and they were
married within the month. Very few
people actually fall head over heels in love
with each other. She fell head over heels
in love and thought she was dreaming.
fall in to line up in a row, standing shoul-
der to shoulder. (Also literal, meaning
“to collapse.” Usually refers to people in
scouting or the military. Compare this
with fall in(to) line and fall out.) The
Boy Scouts were told to fall in behind the
scoutmaster. The soldiers fell in quickly.
fall into a trap and fall into the trap; fall
into someone’s trap to become caught in
someone’s scheme; to be deceived into
doing or thinking something. (Also lit-
eral.) We fell into a trap by asking for
an explanation. I fell into his trap when
I agreed to drive him home. We fell into
the trap of thinking he was honest.
fall in(to) line 1. to line up with each per-
son (except the first person) standing be-
hind someone. (Compare this with fall
in.) The teacher told the students to fall
in line for lunch. Hungry students fall
into line very quickly. 2. to conform; to
fall in(to) place. All the parts of the
problem finally fell into line. Bill’s be-
havior began to fall in line.
fall into someone’s trap Go to fall into a trap.
fall into the trap Go to fall into a trap.
fall in with someone or something 1. [with
someone] to meet someone by accident;
to join with someone. John has fallen
in with a strange group of people. We
fell in with some people from our home-
town when we went on vacation. 2. to
agree with someone or something. Bill
was not able to fall in with our ideas about
painting the house red. Bob fell in with
Mary’s plans to move to Texas.
fall out (with someone about something) Go
to fall out (with someone over something).
fall out (with someone over something) and
fall out (with someone about something)
to quarrel or disagree about something.
Bill fell out with Sally over the question
of buying a new car. Bill fell out with
John about who would sleep on the bottom
bunk. They are always arguing. They
fall out about once a week.
fall short (of something) 1. to lack some-
thing; to lack enough of something.
We fell short of money at the end of the
month. When baking a cake, the cook
fell short of eggs and had to go to the store
for more. 2. to fail to achieve a goal. We
fell short of our goal of collecting a thou-
sand dollars. Ann ran a fast race, but fell
short of the record.
fall to someone to do something to become the
responsibility of someone. It always
falls to me to apologize first. Why does
it fall to me to answer the telephone every
time it rings?
fall (up)on someone or something 1. to attack
someone or something. (Also literal.)
The cat fell upon the mouse and killed it.
The children fell on the birthday cake
and ate it all. 2. [with someone] [for a
task] to become the duty of someone.
The task of telling Mother about the bro-
ken vase fell upon Jane. The job of
cleaning up the spill fell upon Tom.
familiar with someone or something having a
good knowledge of someone or some-
thing. Are you familiar with changing a
f lat tire? I’m can’t speak German f lu-
ently, but I’m somewhat familiar with the
language.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Knowing a
person closely for a long time leads to bad
feelings. (Proverb.) Bill and his broth-
ers are always fighting. As they say: “Fa-
miliarity breeds contempt.” Mary and
John were good friends for many years. Fi-
nally they got into a big argument and be-
came enemies. That just shows that famil-
iarity breeds contempt.
a fan of someone a follower of someone;
someone who idolized someone. (Pre-
ceded by be, become, seem like, or act
like.) My mother is still a fan of the Bea-
tles. I’m a great fan of the mayor of the
town.
fan the flames (of something) to make
something more intense; to make a situ-
ation worse. The riot fanned the f lames
of racial hatred even more. The hostil-
ity in the school is bad enough without
anyone fanning the f lames.
far and away the best unquestionably the
This soap is far and away the best.
Sally is good, but Ann is far and away
the best.
far as anyone knows Go to (as) far as any-
one knows.
far as something is concerned Go to (as) far
as something is concerned.
a faraway look and a far-off look an ap-
pearance on one’s face of having one’s
mind in another place. Dave had a far-
away look in his eyes, so I touched him to
get his attention. Katherine’s face had
a far-off look indicating that she was
daydreaming.
far be it from me to do something it is not
really my place to do something. (Always
with but, as in the examples below.)
Far be it from me to tell you what to do,
but I think you should buy the book. Far
be it from me to attempt to advise you, but
you’re making a big mistake.
a far cry from something a thing that is very
different from something else. (Infor-
mal.) What you did was a far cry from
what you said you were going to do. The
song they played was a far cry from what
I call music.
far from it not it at all; not at all. Do I
think you need a new car? Far from it. The
old one is fine. BILL: Does this hat look
strange? TOM: Far from it. It looks good.
far into the night late into the night; late.
She sat up and read far into the night.
The party went on far into the night.
a far-off look Go to a far-away look.
far out 1. far from the center of things; far
from town. The Smiths live sort of far
out. The restaurant is nice, but too far
out. 2. strange. (Slang.) Ann acts pretty
far out sometimes. The whole group of
people seemed pretty far out.
farm someone or something out 1. [with some-
one] to send someone (somewhere) for
care or development. When my mother
died, they farmed me out to my aunt and
uncle. T The team manager farmed out
the baseball player to the minor leagues
until he improved. 2. [with something] to
send something (elsewhere) to be dealt
with. Bill farmed his chores out to his
brothers and sisters and went to a movie.
T I farmed out various parts of the work
to different people.
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