give face
To honor; to pay respect.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I attended the party to give face to my host.”
“Even though he was tired, he showed up to the dinner to give face to his business partner.”
“By attending the ceremony despite his personal reservations, the diplomat sought to give face to the visiting delegation and maintain international goodwill.”
The phrase is formed from the verb *give* and the noun *face*. It is a construction analogous to *give head*.
- 01
bash someone's face in
To beat someone violently.
- 02
blow up in one's face
To fail disastrously.
- 03
boat
[Cockney slang]face
- 04
break someone's face
To beat up someone violently.
- 05
butter face
Alternative form of butterface.
- 06
close the face
To turn the face of the bat inwards, in order to hit the ball to the leg side.
- 07
cut off one's nose to spite one's face
To harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.
- 08
don't give up your day job
Somewhat sarcastic but usually good-natured advice used to criticise a person's degree of talent (especially in music or other performing arts), implying that they are unlikely to be successful.
Last updated August 10, 2026