face-plant

1 of 2

noun

variants or faceplant
plural face-plants or faceplants
: a sudden face-first fall
tripped and did a face-plant

face-plant

2 of 2

verb

variants or less commonly faceplant
face-planted also faceplanted; face-planting also faceplanting; face-plants also faceplants
: to fall suddenly and face-first : to do a face-plant
tripped and face-planted on the stage

Examples of face-plant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But Google's recent layoffs hit that trust and safety team at a time when those particular workers are under pressure to help correct the public face-plant of the Gemini image generator rollout. Michael Calore Lauren Goode, WIRED, 7 Mar. 2024 Facebook did a face-plant Tuesday morning, as hundreds of thousands of users reported problems on Meta’s flagship social media platform, as well as Instagram, Threads, and the Messenger app. Chris Morris, Fortune, 5 Mar. 2024 The problem is that, whereas in a wheeled robot a failure usually means the robot stops on its tracks, in a humanoid robot failure often means a face-plant. IEEE Spectrum, 30 Mar. 2010 Just this week, there have been two high-profile face-plants by company leaders who ostensibly wanted to inspire their staffs and wound up doing…the opposite of that. Allison Morrow, CNN, 20 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'face-plant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1981, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1986, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of face-plant was in 1981

Dictionary Entries Near face-plant

Cite this Entry

“Face-plant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face-plant. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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