give face

English

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

First used in the late 19th century (most likely in the colonial Hong Kong), a calque of dialectal Cantonese 畀面 (bei2 min2).

Verb

give face (third-person singular simple present gives face, present participle giving face, simple past gave face, past participle given face)

1. (idiomatic) To honor; to pay respect.
   • 2000, Ko-lin Chin, Chinatown Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise, and Ethnicity, page 200:

     We gave face to one another.

   • 2001, Wenshan Jia, The remaking of the Chinese character and identity in the 21st Century, page 135:

     While she gave face to the director, his subordinates, and her colleagues, she had no face left to herself.

   • 2003, Martin Krott, Kent Williamsson, China business ABC: the China market survival kit, page 51:

     As one example among many of good intent gone wrong, we can mention the western top manager who felt that he gave face to the Chinese side by suddenly showing up himself to negotiate instead of sending a lower ranked employee.

See also

• save face

Etymology 2

Compare give head.

Verb

give face (third-person singular simple present gives face, present participle giving face, simple past gave face, past participle given face)

1. (idiomatic, slang) To perform oral sex (on a female).
   • 2011, J. Darroll Hall, The Lollipop Book, page 107:

     Boys gave face, girls gave head.

   • 2001, Letters to Penthouse XIV, page 107:

     Frank had pushed her pants down to reveal her pink pussy and was giving her face. She was in ecstasy.

   • 2004, Henry Joseph Rychlicki, Fragments of My Life: A Sex Fiction, page 121:

     I'd hold her ass while I was giving her face, licking and sucking while she tried to escape, anticipating her orgasm when all of the sudden she would burst sweet honey and come all over my face while the earth shook.

Etymology 3

Verb

give face (third-person singular simple present gives face, present participle giving face, simple past gave face, past participle given face)

1. (with to) To confront.
   • 1997, Scott Turow, The Laws of Our Fathers:

     He has been shot twice before, once when he was sixteen, that was some serious shit, sort of giving face to some dude, and the mother pulled out a.38 and boom, just like it was but a little more downtalk.