face down

adjective or adverb

variants or less commonly face-down or facedown
: with the face down
He was face down on the bed. = He was lying face down on the bed.
Two cards are dealt face down to each player, then the first round of bets is made.Thomas L. Clark
… she walked past us to the lab area, placed the paper face down on the table and looked back at us.David Kwiatkowski
… stood up so fast he knocked his plate of waffles facedown onto the floor.Ingrid Law
usually hyphenated before a noun
… an alternate paper path has been added to turn out face-down copies in proper order, so they don't have to be collated manually.William J. Lynott

Examples of face down in a Sentence

The cards were dealt facedown. He fell facedown in the sand.
Recent Examples on the Web His friend on Discord called 911 when Kidwell allegedly found the child face down in the water, according to the affidavit, the outlet reported. Samira Asma-Sadeque, Peoplemag, 6 Mar. 2024 Herro lost the ball and immediately grabbed his left knee while lying face down on the court. Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 24 Feb. 2024 While Jansen was face down on the ground, the ball flew almost the entire length of the pitch, bounced over Amsterdamsche goalkeeper Gijs van Zetten and nestled in the back of the net. Matias Grez, CNN, 10 Feb. 2024 An unidentified man seen face down in the Tijuana River was pulled out by rescue crews around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6. Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2024 An officer opens the door to the security room and Ponds can be seen lying face down on the floor, yelling. Glenn E. Rice, Kansas City Star, 7 Feb. 2024 Pica, 48, was discovered slumped over her couch, face down, by one of her twin 10-year-old daughters on May 15, 1979 at their home on Edloe Drive in Hayward. Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2024 First responders arrived at the scene on Milwaukee’s northwest side at about 6 p.m., Jan. 15, after a passerby saw the woman lying face down in the snow and called 911, TMJ4 reported. Mitchell Willetts, Kansas City Star, 24 Jan. 2024 At about noon the next day, Bellamy was found lying face down in his cell and he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, the complaint stated. María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'face down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of face down was in 1818

Dictionary Entries Near face down

Cite this Entry

“Face down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face%20down. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

facedown

adverb
face·​down ˈfās-ˈdau̇n How to pronounce facedown (audio)
: with the face down
floated facedown
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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