facepalm

English

Etymology

A facepalm

From face +‎ palm.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfeɪsˌpɑː(l)m/

Noun

facepalm (plural facepalms)

1. A gesture of bringing one palm or both palms to the face, with various interpretations.
   • 2008, Sara Vance-Hogan, Dies Irae: Love and Friendship‎, page 243:

     A look of realization crossed her face; she looked like she may have given herself a face palm if her hands weren't full.

   • 2012 July 3, Marina Hyde, “A lesson in Olymp-o-nomics”, The Guardian:

     According to a study by me, this generates a multibillion facepalm for the UK economy, making everyone who considers it at least eleventy hundred pounds unhappier.

Translations

bring the palm of the hand to the face

• French: main sur le front
• German: Stirnklatsch (de) m

• Russian: фейспалм (ru) (fɛjspálm) m , фейспам (ru) (fɛjspám) m 

Verb

facepalm (third-person singular simple present facepalms, present participle facepalming, simple past and past participle facepalmed)

1. To bring the palm of one’s hand to one’s face as an expression of mixed humor and disbelief or disgust or shame, for example, when one is caught off-guard with a particularly bad pun.
2. To bring one’s face down to one’s cupped hand or hands.

Usage notes

Found primarily in real-time text communication on the Internet, often involving image macros or ASCII art of someone facepalming.

Translations

bring the palm of the hand to the face

• Dutch: het gezicht in de handen verbergen, zich voor de kop slaan (nl)
• Finnish: peittää päänsä kämmenellä (fi)
• French: se taper la main sur le front, se taper la tête avec la main
• German: die Hände vors Gesicht schlagen

• Italian: portare il palmo della mano al volto (it)
• Japanese: 手に顔をうずめる (ja), 手に顔を埋める (ja)
• Korean: 손바닥을 얼굴에 대다 (ko)

bring the face to the palm of the hand

• Dutch: het gezicht in de handen verbergen
• French: se cacher la tête dans la main

• Japanese: 手に顔をうずめる (ja), 手に顔を埋める (ja)
• Russian: прикрыть лицо ладонью (ru) (prikrýtʹ licó ladónʹju) 

See also

• headslapper
• Facepalm on Wikipedia.Wikipedia