slap in the face
slap in the face noun: something unexpectedly said or done which causes shock or offense; an insult, rebuke, or rebuff.
Noun
slap in the face (plural slaps in the face)
- Something unexpectedly said or done which causes shock or offense; an insult, rebuke, or rebuff.
- That Joan's ex-boyfriend turned up to the school dance with Mary was a slap in the face for Joan, and the girls are no longer friends.
- As things were, Ulric would probably renounce and marry ignominiously or die unmarried and the hated Michaels would step in, for, once king, the conventional Robert would never give his consent to such an alliance. Besides, it would be a 'damned slap in the face' to half the remaining royalty of...1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- kick in the teeth, smack in the face
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see slap, in, the, face. (This sense is a translation hub.)
Verb
slap in the face (third-person singular simple present slaps in the face, present participle slapping in the face, simple past and past participle slapped in the face)
- To insult or offend unnecessarily.
- With the election of George Bush this country has apparently chosen an answer to the AIDS crisis consisting of the most reactionary social principles. Adding insult to injury, it is a response which makes a show of slapping all marginalized groups in the face.1988 December 18, Jack Ben-Levi, “The Death And Birth Of Families”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 23, page 5
- To be or suddenly become bluntly obvious to.
slap in the face meaning in Tagalog and Persian
slap in the face in Tagalog
- slap in the face or on the cheek
- sampal sa mukha
slap in the face in Persian
- slap in the face or on the cheek
- سیلی sili
Synonyms of slap in the face
Forms of slap in the face
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | slaps in the face |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | slaps in the face |
| present participle | slapping in the face |
| past participle | slapped in the face |
| past | slapped in the face |
Questions about slap in the face
- What does slap in the face mean?
- Slap in the face means something unexpectedly said or done which causes shock or offense; an insult, rebuke, or rebuff.
- What is slap in the face in Tagalog?
- Slap in the face in Tagalog is sampal sa mukha. See Slap in the face meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is slap in the face?
- Slap in the face can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of slap in the face?
- The plural of slap in the face is slaps in the face.
Words near slap in the face in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slap in the 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-slap in the face.ogg.
Cite this entry: “slap in the face.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slap_in_the_face. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.