facer

plural facers

1. obsoleteslangA blow in the face, as in boxing.

   1 more example

   I made £150 by Alton Locke, and never lost a farthing; and I got, not in spite of, but by the rows, a name and a standing with many a one who would never have heard of me otherwise, and I should have been a stercoraceous mendicant if I had hollowed when I got a facer, while I was winning by the cross, though I didn't mean to fight one.

   1856 May, Thomas Hughes, quoting Charles Kingsley, “Prefatory Memoir”, in Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], London: Macmillan and Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page lvi

2. broadlyslangAn unexpected and stunning blow or defeat.

   He [Joschka Fischer] was for Nato, looser visa rules and—quite the facer for his pacifist colleagues—the bombing of Serbia.

   2024 January 27, Janan Ganesh, “Could there be a liberal demagogue?”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21

   1 more example

   “You're such a snob,” she said, with a provoking laugh; coming from the family he was thought to be snobbish about, this was a bit of a facer.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 1, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 6

   Synonyms: slap in the face

3. slangA serving of alcoholic drink; a dram.

   Dory[…]poured a little whisky into a glass, and grew reminiscent. “I had a facer myself this morning before I came down,” he said.

plural facers

1. obsoleteslangOne who faces; one who puts on a false show; a bold-faced person.

plural Facers

1. A surname.