F

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.