E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Face.
(Latin, facies.)
1
A brazen face. A bold, defiant look. A brazen-faced person means one with an impudent, audacious look, especially in a bad cause. Brass metaphorically is generally used in a bad or deprecatory sense, as “You have plenty of brass” [impudence], “I admire your brass.”
2
A rebec face (French, visage de rebec). An ugly, grotesque face, like that which used to be cut on the upper part of a rebec or three-stringed fiddle.
3
“Dead is the noble Badëbec,
Who had a face like a rebec.”
Rabelais: Pantagruel, book ii. 4.
Badebec was the mother of Gargantua, and died in childbirth.
4
A wry face. The features drawn awry, expressive of distaste.
5
To draw a long face. To look dissatisfied or sorrowful, in which case the mouth is drawn down at the corners, the eyes are dejected, and the face elongated
6
“Of course, it is all right; if you had not drawn such a long face I should never have doubted.”—Dr. Cupid.
To fly in the face of … . To oppose violently and unreasonably: to set at defiance rashly.
7
To put a good face on the matter. To make the best of a bad matter: to bear up under something disagreeable; “vultu malum dissimulre;” “in adversis vultum secundœ fortunœ gerre.”
8
To set one’s face against [something]. To oppose it; to resist its being done. The expression of the face shows the state of the inclination of a person’s mind.
Badebec was the mother of Gargantua, and died in childbirth.
re;” “in adversis vultum secundœ fortunœ ger
re.”
