English
front
Etymology

From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns.

Pronunciation Noun

front

  1. The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
  2. The side of a building with the main entrance.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.
  3. A field of activity.
  4. 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.
  5. (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.
    We need to take the clothes off the line. The news reported a front is coming in from the east, and we can expect heavy rain and maybe hail.
  6. (military) An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
  7. (military) The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
  8. (military) The direction of the enemy.
  9. (military) When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
  10. (historical) A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
  11. (dated) Cheek; boldness; impudence.
  12. (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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene vi]:
      with smiling fronts encountering
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:
      The inhabitants showed a bold front.
  13. (historical) That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
    • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC ↗:
      like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front
  14. The most conspicuous part.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
      the very head and front of my offending
  15. The beginning.
    • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 102”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC ↗:
      summer's front
    • 2012, Kenneth Womack, Todd F. Davis, Reading the Beatles, page 43:
      So the faulty bridge was moved to the front of the song, creating in the process one of the most striking opening moments in Beatles music.
  16. (UK) A seafront or coastal promenade.
  17. (obsolete) The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
    • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC ↗:
      Bless'd with his father's front, his mother's tongue.
    • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
      Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.
    • c. 1700, Matthew Prior, Seeing the Duke of Ormond's Picture at Sir Godfrey Kneller's:
      His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.
  18. (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.
  19. (slang, in the plural) A grill jewellery worn on front teeth.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

front (comparative further front, superlative furthest front)

  1. Located at or near the front.
    The front runner was thirty meters ahead of her nearest competitor.
  2. (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 dress has a front vowel in most dialects.
  3. Closest or nearest, of a set of futures contracts which expire at particular times, or of the times they expire; (typically, the front month or front year is the next calendar month or year after the current one).
    Synonyms: prompt
    Antonyms: back
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “located near the front”): back, last, rear
  • (antonym(s) of “phonetics”): back
Translations Translations Verb

front (fronts, present participle fronting; simple past and past participle fronted)

  1. (intransitive, dated) To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
    • 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver's Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC ↗, 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, published 2011, page 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 R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 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.
  2. (transitive) To face, be opposite to.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC ↗:
      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 January 26, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗:
      […] 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, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC ↗:
      She sat on a seat under the alders in the cricket ground, and fronted the evening.
  3. (transitive) To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
    • 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):
      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,
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
      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.
    • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Part IV, chapter 39:
      But Dagley immediately fronted him, and Fag at his heels growled low […] .
  4. (transitive) To adorn with, at the front; to put on the front.
    • 2001, Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation, page 148:
      Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.
  5. (phonetics, transitive, intransitive) To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
  6. (linguistics, transitive) To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence (or series of adjectives, etc).
    • 2001, Arthur J. Holmer, Jan-Olof Svantesson, Åke Viberg, Proceedings of the 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics:
      […] in the clause, only the adjective may be fronted; but if both a past participle and a verbal particle are present, either may be fronted. Topicalization, in which maximal projections are fronted to express pragmatics such as contrast, emphasis, ...
    • 2010, George Melville Bolling, Bernard Bloch, Language:
      A problem facing any syntactic analysis of hyperbaton is that nonconstituent strings are fronted […] In cases where the adjective is fronted with the determiner, the determiner is not doubled […]
  7. (intransitive, slang) To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
    • 2007, Harold Robbins, A Stone for Danny Fisher, page 183:
      Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.
  8. (transitive) To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
  9. (ambitransitive) Of an alter in dissociative identity disorder: to be the currently actively presenting member of (a system), in control of the patient's body.
    • 2018, Eric Yarbrough, Transgender Mental Health, page 160:
      Fronting can be understood as a representation of who controls the system, that is, the person to whom you are speaking. Emilia was typically the person fronting her system.
  10. (transitive, colloquial) To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
    • 2004, Danielle Steele, Ransom, page 104:
      I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.
  11. (intransitive, slang) To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
    Synonyms: put on airs, feign
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 101 ↗:
      No matter how hard she fronted in the coming years, Carmiesha could never forget that she had given birth and had a child in this world. Even when she tried not to remember, she still couldn’t forget.
    • 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, page 531:
      You know damned straight what this is about, or you ain't as smart as you been frontin'.
  12. (transitive, slang) To deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).
  13. (transitive) To appear before.
    to front court
  14. (transitive or intransitive, slang, AAVE) To act cocky, disrespectful and aggressive; to confront (someone).
Translations Translations

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