lose face

present singular third person loses face · participle present losing face · participle past lost face · past lost face

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo lose the respect of others; to be humiliated or experience public disgrace.

   Ahithophel, Absalom's chief counsel, hanged himself when he lost face after his advice was rejected.

   1986, John Shelby Spong, Beyond Moralism: A Contemporary View of the Ten Commandments, HarperCollins, published 2000, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   "The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face.

   1942 March, “Notes and News: Monument to a Stillborn Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 88

   The intelligence sources said the Chinese would not want to lose face. One source said, however: "The show of military muscle has provoked an international reaction and that may be enough face saved."

   1996 March 15, Michael Evans, “China offensive cannot be ruled out, experts say”, in The Times, number 65,528, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 14, column 7

   A schoolboy obsessed with losing face after a classroom quarrel stabbed a younger boy through the heart before walking away "looking as though he had been told off for chewing gum", a court heard yesterday.

   2004 July 8, Martin Wainwright, “Stab case schoolboy 'feared losing face'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   When you start to feel unmotivated, you will look for ways to weasel out of your commitments. We all do it. If there's a stealth way to back out, without ever losing face, you will do it without hesitation.

   2011, Mel Robbins, Stop Saying You're Fine: Discover a More Powerful You, Crown Archetype, published 2011, →ISBN, page 221

   He had arranged for one of his managers to be present in the office with us, so I should have realised immediately that there was little chance of him backing down since that would have meant losing face in front of a subordinate.

   2012, Sharon Pincott, Battle for the President's Elephants: Life, Lunacy and Elation in the African Bush, Jacana Media, published 2012, →ISBN, page 97