face down

adjective or adverb

variants or less commonly face-down

ˌfās-ˈdau̇n 

or facedown

: with the face down

He was face down on the bed. = He was lying face down on the bed.

Two cards are dealt face down to each player, then the first round of bets is made.

—Thomas L. Clark

… she walked past us to the lab area, placed the paper face down on the table and looked back at us.

—David Kwiatkowski

… stood up so fast he knocked his plate of waffles facedown onto the floor.

—Ingrid Law

—usually hyphenated before a noun

… an alternate paper path has been added to turn out face-down copies in proper order, so they don't have to be collated manually.

—William J. Lynott

Examples of face down in a Sentence

The cards were dealt facedown.

He fell facedown in the sand.

Recent Examples on the Web

Inside the kitchen, officers found Reed lying face down on the floor. —Cbs News Atlanta Staff, CBS News, 5 Mar. 2026

Given the ferocity of the regime’s response to the protests in January, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iranians, are Iranians willing to face down Iran’s internal security forces and drive what remains of the regime from power? —Javed Ali, Fortune, 1 Mar. 2026

Given the ferocity of the regime’s response to the protests in January, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iranians, are Iranians willing to face down Iran’s internal security forces and drive what remains of the regime from power? —Javed Ali, The Conversation, 28 Feb. 2026

These three brave men have come to fight for the future of Australian agriculture, to face down a foe the Australian army has never faced before. —Tom Hawking, Popular Science, 25 Feb. 2026

Photographs taken by the police show the van on its side and a group of young Somali men, including Ahmed, handcuffed and lying face down in the grass. —Elizabeth Flock, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026

Fiala, who was laying face down on the ice, was able to prop himself on his elbows but did not move his lower body before being placed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. —Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2026

Greenson breaks into Monroe's bedroom and finds the 36-year-old movie star lying naked, lifeless, face down on her bed, still clutching the telephone receiver. —Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer, 13 Feb. 2026

DeKalb County officers ignored his gasping for breath and loaded him face down into a police vehicle, lawyers said. —Samantha Hogan, AJC.com, 13 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for face down

• chinatown
• tumbledown
• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown

Kids Definition

facedown

adverb

face·​down ˈfās-ˈdau̇n 

: with the face down

floated facedown