front

plural fronts

1. countableuncountableThe foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
2. countableuncountableThe side of a building with the main entrance.

   I'll go out the front, and you go out the back.

   2 more examples

   Flowering plants cascaded down the fronts of the buildings.

   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.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

3. countableuncountableA field of activity.

   Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.

   2012 January 28, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 60

4. countableuncountableA person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.

   Near-synonyms: frontperson, frontman, front man

   1 more example

   Officially it's a dry-cleaning shop, but everyone knows it's a front for the mafia.

   Synonyms: frontperson, frontman, front man

5. countableuncountableclimatologyThe 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. countableuncountablegovernmentAn area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
7. countableuncountablegovernmentThe lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
8. countableuncountablegovernmentThe direction of the enemy.
9. countableuncountablegovernmentWhen a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
10. countablehistoricaluncountableA major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
11. countabledateduncountableCheek; boldness; impudence.
12. countabledatedeuphemisticin pluraluncountableA woman's breast.

    Turning their Backs... ON FRONTS. CONVIVIAL WAITRESS: D... Don't you want to ogle me? SICKO MILLENNIAL: No... I hate breasts!

    2019 October 15, Ward Sutton as Stan Kelly, “Wings And A Pair”, in The Onion

    2 more examples

    […] there was one bare breast sticking out, the tip of it disappearing into Enid's father's mouth. She had told her mother about this in perfect certainty that she had seen it. She said, "One of her fronts was stuck in Daddy's mouth."

    1998, Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman, page 74

    She thought—imagined, really—that her, well, that her fronts were too big. She grew up, you see, in the flapper era, when it was fashionable for women to have very flat fronts.

    2015, Stephen Birmingham, The Wrong Kind of Money

13. countableinformaluncountableAn act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.

    You don't need to put on a front. Just be yourself.

    3 more examples

    He says he likes hip-hop, but I think it's just a front.

    with smiling fronts encountering

    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]

    The inhabitants showed a bold front.

    1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, 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

14. countablehistoricaluncountableThat which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.

    like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front

    1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC

15. countableuncountableThe most conspicuous part.

    the very head and front of my offending

    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]

16. countableuncountableThe beginning.

    summer's front

    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

    1 more example

    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.

    2012, Kenneth Womack, Todd F. Davis, Reading the Beatles, page 43

17. UKcountableuncountableA seafront or coastal promenade.
18. countableobsoleteuncountableThe forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.

    His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.

    c. 1700, Matthew Prior, Seeing the Duke of Ormond's Picture at Sir Godfrey Kneller's

    2 more examples

    Bless'd with his father's front, his mother's tongue.

    1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC

    Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.

    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]

19. countabledatedslanguncountablehotelsThe bellhop whose turn it is to answer a client's call, which is often the word "front" used as an exclamation.
20. countablein pluralslanguncountableA grill (jewellery worn on front teeth).

    I'm saying, man, them fronts? That car? Who is you, Chiron?

    2016, 1:41:25, in Barry Jenkins, director, Moonlight, spoken by Kevin (André Holland)

comparative further front · comparative farther front · superlative furthest front · superlative farthest front

1. Located at or near the front.

   The front runner was thirty meters ahead of her nearest competitor.

   Synonyms: forward, first, lead, fore

2. comparablehuman sciencesPronounced 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).

   Contracts are available for every month in the front year but do not extend over a year.

   1995, Ignacio Mas, Jesús Saá-Requejo, Using Financial Futures in Trading and Risk Management, World Bank Publications, page 11

   5 more examples

   Contract months : March, June, September and December[.] Minimum price fluctuation : 0.005 Index Point (1/2 basis point) equivalent to USD 12.50 per tick for the front-year Eurodollar futures[…]

   2000, The Handbook of World Stock, Derivative & Commodity Exchanges

   The contract that will expire next is called the front contract or front month contract. The other contracts are called the back contracts. In financial and industrial commodities, traders mostly trade only the front month contract.

   2003, Larry Harris, Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners, OUP USA, →ISBN, page 54

   Buying the security for the earlier (or “front”) month, and owning (and financing) it for the period ending with the latter (or “back” month) settlement date.

   2010 December 30, Frank J. Fabozzi, Anand K. Bhattacharya, William S. Berliner, Mortgage-Backed Securities: Products, Structuring, and Analytical Techniques, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 35

   To a speculator, a front month future is attractive. Refer to Figure 6-1 to see that both the open interest and the trading volume of the front-month contract exceeds that of all the other contracts.

   2016 August 8, Steve Bell, Quantitative Finance For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 113

   An alternative definition would estimate the slope using the front futures contract and the contract expiring 1 year after (these contracts are relatively liquid in the commodity markets).

   2017 October 17, Emmanuel Jurczenko, Factor Investing: From Traditional to Alternative Risk Premia, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 359

   Synonyms: prompt · Antonyms: back

present singular third person fronts · participle present fronting · participle past fronted · past fronted

1. datedintransitiveTo face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.

   They emerged atop the broad curving steps that fronted on the Street of the Sisters, near the foot of Visenya's Hill.

   1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 312

   3 more examples

   The great gate fronting to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.

   1726 October 28, [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 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.

   1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 35

   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.

   2010, Ingrid D Rowland, "The Siege of Rome", New York Review of Books, Blog, 26 March

2. transitiveTo face, be opposite to.

   She sat on a seat under the alders in the cricket ground, and fronted the evening.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   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.

   Fanny Hill

   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

   […]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.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

3. transitiveTo face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.

   What well-appointed leader fronts us here?

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, 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)

   4 more examples

   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,

   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)

   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.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   But Dagley immediately fronted him, and Fag at his heels growled low […].

   1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Part IV, chapter 39

   On returning home, he fronted his servant about this grisly discovery.

   2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 217

4. transitiveTo adorn with, at the front; to put on the front.

   Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.

   2001, Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation, page 148

5. intransitivetransitivehuman sciencesTo pronounce with the tongue in a front position.

   Finally, the pretonic -e- of this *tsengòrra would have been fronted, yielding *tsingòrra.

   2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 214

   1 more example

   The velar plosives are often fronted through the influence of a following front vowel, and retracted through the influence of a following back vowel.

   2005, Paul Skandera, Peter Burleigh, A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology, page 48

6. transitivehuman sciencesTo move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence (or series of adjectives, etc).

   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 […]

   2010, George Melville Bolling, Bernard Bloch, Language

   1 more example

   […] 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, ...

   2001, Arthur J. Holmer, Jan-Olof Svantesson, Åke Viberg, Proceedings of the 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics

7. intransitiveslangTo act as a front (for); to cover (for).

   Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.

   2007, Harold Robbins, A Stone for Danny Fisher, page 183

8. transitiveTo lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).

   Ray Winstone is fronting a campaign for the Football Association that aims to stop pushy parents shouting abuse at their children during the grassroots football season.

   2009 September 1, Mark Sweney, The Guardian

9. ambitransitivemultiplicityOf an alter in a person with multiplicity (especially in dissociative identity disorder): to be the currently actively presenting member of (a system), in control of the person's body.

   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.

   2018, Eric Yarbrough, Transgender Mental Health, page 160

10. colloquialtransitiveTo provide money or financial assistance in advance to.

    I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.

    2004, Danielle Steele, Ransom, page 104

11. intransitiveslangTo assume false or disingenuous appearances.

    Boy don't try to front, / I-I know just-just what you are, are-are.

    2008, Briscoe/Akinyemi, ‘Womanizer’

    4 more examples

    So when I tell people where I'm from and check their reactions, I know in my heart I'm just frontin’. Because the way and where I lived then pales when compared to the way and where many youths are living today.

    1993 November 19, Bobby Hill, “Mad Real”, in Washington City Paper, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2013

    What's with these homies dissin' my girl? / Why do they gotta front?

    1994, Rivers Cuomo, “Buddy Holly”, performed by Weezer

    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.

    2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 101

    You know damned straight what this is about, or you ain't as smart as you been frontin'.

    2008, Markus Naerheim, The City, page 531

    Synonyms: put on airs, feign

12. slangtransitiveTo deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).

    You think that you can front when revelation comes? / You can't front on that

    1992, “So What'cha Want”, performed by The Beastie Boys

13. transitiveTo appear before.

    to front court

14. intransitiveslangtransitiveAfrican-American VernacularTo act cocky, disrespectful and aggressive; to confront (someone).

1. Used to summon a worker on duty, such as a bellhop.

   Harshaw yelled “Front!” again and Miriam started toward him.

   1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

   1 more example

   Front, boy. Front, boy. Front, boy. Front, boy. You four boys show Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth and their seven—-or so—-Irishmen to 503, 504, 505, 506, and 507.

   1948, Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen