to fall on one's face
6
7.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
caer en ridículo
- Maybe the kindest thing to do would be to send him out onto the field for the tryouts and let him fall on his face.
- nearly fall on one's face
- going to fall on one's face
- want to fall on one's face
Examples
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Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes you just have to laugh it off when you fall on your face in front of your peers.
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Each of you seems to be hoping the other will fall on his face.
-
Again, learning from mistakes by being willing to fall on your face publicly.
Blog text (5) -
Not only has he fallen on his face, he has taken much of the GOP with him.
Blog text (22) -
Niles, you know that I would never miss the opportunity to see you fall on your face.
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But when you fall on your face as many times as I did, you finally realize it's better to learn from the mistakes of other people than to continually make your own.
-
They just sit back on their butts and wait to see if you fall on your face.
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He tried to impress everyone with his speech, but he ended up falling on his face when he forgot what to say.
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She was confident about her performance, but unfortunately, she fell on her face during the presentation.
Synonyms
38
6.1
Fail to do something you are responsible for
11
6.6
To feel embarrassed and seem less respected in front of other people
5
7.1
To fail completely and feel embarrassed in front of others
3
7.7
To say or do something embarrassing by accident
2
9.5
Found unprepared and embarrassed when something unexpected happens
1
4.2
Do something that is a serious and embarrassing mistake
1
8.5
To say or do something embarrassing by accident
To fail completely in an embarrassing way
To make a serious, embarrassing mistake by being careless
Antonyms
How Embarrassing
- Offensive
414
6.1
- Informal
6
7.6
7
4.4
37
1.0
- Informal
27
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to fail badly or embarrass oneself' is a metaphorical extension of the literal image of falling onto one's face; a learner who knows 'fall', 'on', 'one's', and 'face' can often infer an embarrassing physical mishap and consequently infer a public failure. However, the shift from literal to figurative public failure is somewhat conventionalized and requires mapping the physical image to social disgrace, so the relation is partly but not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom fall on one's face comes from the image of someone tripping and falling so their face hits the ground in front of people. So it means 'to fail badly' or 'to embarrass oneself'.