to one's face



to one's face

Openly, directly, as in I do not have the nerve to tell him to his face that he wasn't invited and shouldn't have come . This idiom alludes to a direct confrontation. [Mid-1500s]
See also: face

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Pridon-Georgian
Paraskevi-Greek
HoraceHAWR-əs (English), o-RAHS (French)English, French
LÜTfİ-Turkish
HermannHER-mahnGerman
ChÍ-Vietnamese