Word.ws English Dictionary

saving face

saving face is the present participle and gerund 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 saving face

What is saving face the present participle and gerund of?
Saving face is the present participle and gerund of save face.

Words near saving face in the dictionary

  1. saving
  2. saving appearances
  3. saving as
  4. saving by the bell
  5. saving down
  6. saving face
  7. saving for a rainy day
  8. saving grace
  9. saving graces
  10. saving it
  11. saving one's breath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saving 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: “saving face.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saving_face. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.