Word.ws English Dictionary

falling on one's face

falling on one's face is the present participle and gerund of fall on one's face.

Meaning of fall on one's face

Verb

fall on one's face (third-person singular simple present falls on one's face, present participle falling on one's face, simple past fell on one's face, past participle fallen on one's face)

  1. (idiomatic) To fail, especially in a dramatic or particularly decisive manner.
    • Judge Charles R. Richey last week tried to apply some firm rules of law to such indelicate situations. He came close to succeeding, then fell on his face.1976 May 3, “Power Switch Hitters”, in Time

Questions about falling on one's face

What is falling on one's face the present participle and gerund of?
Falling on one's face is the present participle and gerund of fall on one's face.

Words near falling on one's face in the dictionary

  1. falling off the wagon
  2. falling on
  3. falling on a grenade
  4. falling on deaf ears
  5. falling on hard times
  6. falling on one's face
  7. falling on one's sword
  8. falling on someone's neck
  9. falling out
  10. falling out of favor
  11. falling out of love

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: falling on one's face (page history and authors); fall on one's face (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.

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