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

Doyle thinks people keep coming back to places like Markoff's to face down their fears safely. — Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, 11 Oct. 2026

Concepcion went face down on the turf and appeared to be unconscious. — ABC News, 11 Oct. 2026

When her young charge is abducted on Halloween, a science-minded babysitter (Tamara Smart) and her reluctant guide (Oona Laurence) face down the Boogeyman (Tom Felton) and his hench-creatures to save him. — Sara Netzley, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Oct. 2026

Sierra then turned to Daniela, who was sleeping face down on her bed. — Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 5 Oct. 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