Word.ws English Dictionary

saves face

saves face is the third-person singular simple present indicative of save face.

Meaning of save face

Verb

save face (third-person singular simple present saves face, present participle saving face, simple past and past participle saved face)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To take an action or make a gesture intended to preserve one's reputation or honour.
    • He tried to make reparations to those he had injured, partly to save face.

Questions about saves face

What is saves face the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Saves face is the third-person singular simple present indicative of save face.

Words near saves face in the dictionary

  1. saves
  2. saves appearances
  3. saves as
  4. saves by the bell
  5. saves down
  6. saves face
  7. saves for a rainy day
  8. saves it
  9. saves one's breath
  10. saves one's breath to cool one's porridge
  11. saves one's neck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saves face (page history and authors); save 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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Cite this entry: “saves face.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saves_face. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.