face down
adjective or adverb
variants
or less commonly face-down
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
Toney was found face down with two 9 mm shell casings near his body when officers responded to the scene.
—Tom Olsen, Twin Cities, 14 Jan. 2026
Inside the home, officers found the 40-year-old victim lying face down on the floor and suffering from a stab wound to her back, police said.
—Joseph Buczek, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2026
Another video shows a DoorDash driver in Portland, Oregon, screaming for air as four officers pin him face down in the street.
—Nicole Foy, ProPublica, 13 Jan. 2026
Authorities said another kayaker found Rajaniemi face down in the water Friday morning with his kayak upside-down near the head of the Bodega Bay channel.
—Sacbee.com, 13 Jan. 2026
Pike was later found shot to death, naked and face down in a ravine in a windsurfing area known as Sewer Beach on Virginia Key.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 10 Jan. 2026
Another man was lying face down in a pool of red-like substance.
—Post-Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 5 Jan. 2026
Responding deputies found Linda Johnson face down on the floor of the residence in a pool of blood, deputies testified.
—City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Dec. 2025
Jefferson is found face down with a strange knife in his back, blood pooled around him.
—Allison Degrushe, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Dec. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Face down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face%20down. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
Kids Definition
facedown
adverb
face·down
ˈfās-ˈdau̇n 
: with the face down
floated facedown
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
