stare someone in the face
stare someone in the face verb: to be extremely visible and obvious to someone.
Verb
stare someone in the face (third-person singular simple present stares someone in the face, present participle staring someone in the face, simple past and past participle stared someone in the face)
- To be extremely visible and obvious to someone.
- Then, one night you wake up with a start at 3 o'clock in the morning with the answer staring you in the face. Or maybe it hits you in the bath, like Archimedes, or while you're on the loo.
- , Book I
The law […] stares them in the face whilst they are breaking it.
Forms of stare someone in the face
| third-person singular present | stares someone in the face |
|---|---|
| present participle | staring someone in the face |
| past participle | stared someone in the face |
| past | stared someone in the face |
Questions about stare someone in the face
- What does stare someone in the face mean?
- Stare someone in the face means to be extremely visible and obvious to someone.
- What part of speech is stare someone in the face?
- Stare someone in the face is a verb.
- What is the past tense of stare someone in the face?
- The past tense of stare someone in the face is stared someone in the face.
Words near stare someone in the face in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stare someone 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-stare someone in the face.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stare someone in the face.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stare_someone_in_the_face. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.