lose face
To lose the respect of others; to be humiliated or experience public disgrace.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“He did not want to lose face in front of his friends.”
“The politician tried to hide his mistake to avoid losing face during the public debate.”
“By admitting his failure so publicly, the manager risked losing face among his colleagues and damaging his professional reputation permanently.”
Calque from Chinese 丟臉／丢脸 (diūliǎn) or 丟面子／丢面子 (diū miànzi), both literally “lose face”.
- 01
bash someone's face in
To beat someone violently.
- 02
be someone's to lose
To be anticipated to be won by someone.
- 03
blow up in one's face
To fail disastrously.
- 04
boat
[Cockney slang]face
- 05
break someone's face
To beat up someone violently.
- 06
butter face
Alternative form of butterface.
- 07
close the face
To turn the face of the bat inwards, in order to hit the ball to the leg side.
- 08
cut off one's nose to spite one's face
To harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.
Last updated August 10, 2026