Word.ws English Dictionary

face off

face off is the alternative form of face-off.

Meaning of face-off

Noun

face-off (plural face-offs)

  1. A confrontation or argument between two people or groups.
    • It's unclear which side will win the latest face-off between the President and Congress.
  2. The start of play, when two players try to get control of the puck dropped by the referee.
    • Canada’s men’s hockey team defeated the USA 3-2 in overtime Thursday to capture the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off Championship as the NHL put on a show in the first edition of this midseason international tournament.2025 February 20, Homero De la Fuente, “Canada beats Team USA in overtime thriller to win hockey’s first-ever 4 Nations Face-off championship”, in CNN
  3. (field lacrosse) The start of play, when two players attempt to get possession of a ball placed on the ground between them by the referee.

Verb

face off (third-person singular simple present faces off, present participle facing off, simple past and past participle faced off)

  1. (intransitive) To confront (each other).
    • When Bank of Scotland and RBS faced off in that epic battle for NatWest ...2009 February 22, Ruaridh Nicoll, “Behind the demise”, in The Observer

Forms of face off

Noun
pluralface offs
Verb
third-person singular presentfaces off
present participlefacing off
past participlefaced off
pastfaced off

Questions about face off

What does face off mean?
Face off means to confront (each other).
What is face off the alternative form of?
Face off is the alternative form of face-off.
What part of speech is face off?
Face off is a verb.
What is the past tense of face off?
The past tense of face off is faced off.

Words near face off in the dictionary

  1. face mask
  2. face mask penalties
  3. face mask penalty
  4. face masks
  5. face men
  6. face off
  7. face offs
  8. face out
  9. face pack
  10. face packs
  11. face paint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: face off (page history and authors); face-off (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “face off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/face_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.