butterface

See also: butter face

English

Alternative forms

• butter face

Etymology

Ellipsis of various forms of everything looks good but her face, great body but her face, etc., under the influence of butter (perhaps also with connotation of “plainness”, grease, etc.) and buttface, which see. Compare summerteeth.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌɾɚˌfeɪs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌtəˌfeɪs/

• Audio (AU)

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• Audio (US)

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Noun

butterface (plural butterfaces)

1. (slang, derogatory) A person who has an attractive body but a less attractive face.

   I can’t even look at her, she’s such a butterface.

   • 2010, Laura Lippman, I'd Know You Anywhere‎^[1], New York: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 76:

     Her face wasn't quite as pretty as he had hoped — Earl, the other mechanic back at his father's place called this kind of girl a Butterface...

2. An unattractive face.

   I can’t even look at her, she’s got such a butterface.

   • 2004, Amy Sohn, “The need to know and the fear of knowing”, in My Old Man‎^[2], New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 106:

     Her friend had a hot figure and a butterface — great body, but her face — and they were talking about Greyhound's most recent dating fiasco.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:ugly person, ugly man, & ugly woman

Antonyms

• butterbody

Coordinate terms

• paper bag, brown bag, mugly

Derived terms

• butterfaced, butters

Translations

attractive person with unattractive face

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 背影殺手／背影杀手 (zh) (bèiyǐngshāshǒu)

• Dutch: plork
• Japanese: バックシャン (bakkushan)
• Polish: krzywy ryj
• Portuguese: Raimunda (pt) f, mulher camarão m
• Spanish: gamba (es) f
• Tagalog: hipon

See also

• you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire