front
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Pronunciation
- IPA: /fɹʌnt/
front
The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves. - The side of a building with the main entrance.
- A field of activity.
- A person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
- Officially it's a dry-cleaning shop, but everyone knows it's a front for the mafia.
- (meteorology) The interface or transition zone between two airmasses of different density, often resulting in precipitation. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates airmasses of different temperature.
- (military) An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
- (military) The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
- (military) The direction of the enemy.
- (military) When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
- (obsolete) A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
- (dated) Cheek; boldness; impudence.
- (informal) An act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.
- He says he likes hip-hop, but I think it's just a front.
- You don't need to put on a front. Just be yourself.
- c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene vi]:
- with smiling fronts encountering
- 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (
please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗: - (historical) That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
, Elizabeth Browning, in Aurora Leigh - like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front
- The most conspicuous part.
- c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
- the very head and front of my offending
- (obsolete) The beginning.
- 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 102
- summer's front
- 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 102
- (UK) A seafront or coastal promenade.
- (obsolete) The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(
please specify )”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In Three Books, Dublin; London: Reprinted for A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756 ↗: - c. 1593, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
- Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.
- His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.
- (slang, hotels, dated) The bellhop whose turn it is to answer a client's call, which is often the word "front" used as an exclamation.
- (slang, in the plural) A grill qual jewellery worn on front teeth.
- French: avant, devant
- German: Frontseite, Vorderseite
- Italian: davanti, difronte, avanti, frontale, parte anteriore, facciata
- Portuguese: dianteira, frente
- Russian: передний
- Spanish: frente
- French: façade
- German: Front, Vorderseite
- Portuguese: frente
- Russian: фаса́д
- French: front
- German: Front, Wetterfront
- Italian: fronte
- Portuguese: frente
- Russian: атмосфе́рный фронт
- Spanish: frente
- French: front
- German: Front, Frontlinie
- Italian: fronte
- Portuguese: frente, front
- Russian: фронт
- Spanish: frente
- Russian: фронт
front (comparative further front, superlative furthest front)
- Located at or near the front.
- The front runner was thirty meters ahead of her nearest competitor.
- 2001, Fritz Stern, Einstein's German World ↗
- You also were in the furthest front line in order to help and learn and to study the conditions for using the gas process [Gasver-fahren] of every kind.
- (comparable, phonetics) Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the front of the mouth, near the hard palate (most often describing a vowel).
- The English word smallcaps dress has a front vowel in most dialects.
- Portuguese: frontal
- Russian: пере́дний
- German: vorderer, Vorderzungen-
front (fronts, present participle fronting; past and past participle fronted)
- (intransitive, dated) To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
- 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], chapter I, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039 ↗, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
- The great gate fronting to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.
- 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, 2011, p.35:
- The door fronted on a narrow run, like a footbridge over a gully, that filled the gap between the house wall and the edge of the bank.
- 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, 2011, p.312:
- They emerged atop the broad curving steps that fronted on the Street of the Sisters, near the foot of Visenya's Hill.
- 2010, Ingrid D Rowland, "The Siege of Rome", New York Review of Books, Blog, 26 March:
- The palazzo has always fronted on a bus stop—but this putative man of the people has kindly put an end to that public service.
- (transitive) To face, be opposite to.
- 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin, 1985, p.66:
- After saluting her, he led her to a couch that fronted us, where they both sat down, and the young Genoese helped her to a glass of wine, with some Naples biscuit on a salver.
- 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice:
- […] down they ran into the dining-room, which fronted the lane, in quest of this wonder; it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate.
- 1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin, 2006, p.49:
- She sat on a seat under the alders in the cricket ground, and fronted the evening.
- 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin, 1985, p.66:
- (transitive) To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
- 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (play), London: William Jones,
- Know you not Gaueston hath store of golde,
- Which may in Ireland purchase him such friends,
- As he will front the mightiest of vs all,
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
- those that have willed to attaine to some greater excellence, have not beene content, at home, and at rest to expect the rigors of fortune […]; but have rather gone to meet and front her before, and witting-earnestly cast themselves to the triall of the hardest difficulties.
- 1623, William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 2:
- What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
- 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (play), London: William Jones,
- (transitive) To adorn the front of; to put on the front.
- 2001, Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation, p.148:
- Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.
- 2001, Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation, p.148:
- (phonetics, transitive, intransitive) To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
- 2005, Paul Skandera / Peter Burleigh, A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology, p.48:
- The velar plosives are often fronted through the influence of a following front vowel, and retracted through the influence of a following back vowel.
- 2005, Paul Skandera / Peter Burleigh, A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology, p.48:
(linguistics, transitive) To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence. - (intransitive, slang) To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
- 2007, Harold Robbins, A Stone for Danny Fisher, p.183:
- Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.
- 2007, Harold Robbins, A Stone for Danny Fisher, p.183:
- (transitive) To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
- 2009 September 1, Mark Sweney, The Guardian:
- Ray Winstone is fronting a campaign for the Football Association that aims to stop pushy parents shouting abuse at their children during the grassroots football season.
- 2009 September 1, Mark Sweney, The Guardian:
- (transitive, colloquial) To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
- 2004, Danielle Steele, Ransom, p.104:
- I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.
- 2004, Danielle Steele, Ransom, p.104:
- (intransitive, slang) To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
- 2008, Briscoe/Akinyemi, ‘Womanizer’:
- Boy don't try to front, / I-I know just-just what you are, are-are.
- 2008 Markus Naerheim, The City, p.531
- You know damned straight what this is about, or you ain't as smart as you been frontin'.
- 2008, Briscoe/Akinyemi, ‘Womanizer’:
- (transitive) To deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).
- 1992, The Beastie Boys, ‘So What'cha Want’:
- You think that you can front when revelation comes? / You can't front on that
- 1992, The Beastie Boys, ‘So What'cha Want’:
- (transitive) To appear before.
- to front court
- (assume false appearances) put on airs, feign
- French: porte-parole
- German: vormachen, fingieren, vorspielen
- Spanish: aparentar, fingir
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004