to face death
- phrasal verb
- /feɪs dɛθ/
- Many soldiers must face death during combat, often showing great courage in the process.
Look, I know who I am and I can even face death unafraid.
- Look, I know who I am and I can even face death unafraid.
- But institutions, companies, governments also struggle to face death.
- In order to really experience life, I think you have to face death.
- And deeply meaningful work because when people are facing death, they also come up, come up against the truth of their lives.
- And I talk a lot about that in mastery and in this book, that the worst feeling in the world is to be facing death and to think, damn it, I've wasted my life.
- So he says, you know, a person who believes in God would perhaps face death differently from a person who doesn't believe in God.
- Is that when you face death and you survived every day as a gift?
Examples
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They say when you're facing death, your life flashes before your eyes.
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Humans need to know how to face death in the hope of life, be it personal, generational, or cultural.
Academic text (2009) -
You talk in the book about the importance of facing death before you die.
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So when you face death like that, what are you going to be afraid of, right?
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But the way you face death is the way you face life.
Fiction book (1994) -
And you can face death without any real fear of dying.
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Jones dreams of his father because he faced death, and his father was waiting there to meet him.
Blog text (24) -
Would I have the courage to face death?
Academic text (1998) -
Edward told me that he felt he had, over the years, acquired the character to face death without terror.
Academic text (1995) -
Look, I know who I am and I can even face death unafraid.
Antonyms
How Brave
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to confront the prospect or reality of dying' is directly and compositionally derived from 'face' (to confront) + 'death' (the end of life). This verb + noun pattern (e.g., face danger, face reality) is common in English and in many other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Face death comes from the simple image of turning your face toward something dangerous, like a soldier looking straight at the battle or a person looking at the figure of death. So, to face death means 'to face the fact that you may die' bravely or calmly.