face down

adjective or adverb

variants or less commonly face-down

ˌfās-ˈdau̇n 

or facedown

: with the face down

He was face down on the bed. = He was lying face down on the bed.

Two cards are dealt face down to each player, then the first round of bets is made.

—Thomas L. Clark

… she walked past us to the lab area, placed the paper face down on the table and looked back at us.

—David Kwiatkowski

… stood up so fast he knocked his plate of waffles facedown onto the floor.

—Ingrid Law

—usually hyphenated before a noun

… an alternate paper path has been added to turn out face-down copies in proper order, so they don't have to be collated manually.

—William J. Lynott

Examples of face down in a Sentence

The cards were dealt facedown.

He fell facedown in the sand.

Recent Examples on the Web

Seeing Hill face down on the ground surrounded by officers who were not Black like him, my mind raced to George Floyd. —Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 4 Mar. 2025

The flight crew asked for help from passengers and several people stepped in and restrained the man face down in the aisle, according to a criminal complaint. —Jennifer Rodriguez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Mar. 2025

The boy was face down with his torso on a couch cushion while his mother was directly on top of him. —Rosalio Ahumada, Sacramento Bee, 28 Feb. 2025

Some babies take comfort a step further and rest on their mother's chest, face down. —Ross Rosenfeld, Newsweek, 26 Feb. 2025

Lay a spoon face down over the top of a cup, with the rim of the glass about halfway down the concave part of the spoon. —Cody Godwin, USA TODAY, 11 Feb. 2025

Saw the news According to the June 5 criminal complaint, the State Patrol responded to a report of a man lying face down on the right shoulder of eastbound I-94 just east of Jackson Street. —Nick Ferraro, Twin Cities, 8 Feb. 2025

Keith Farquhar: Something entirely different … there's nothing here then or now that would suggest a 15-year-old girl should, all of a sudden, be face down in a small amount of water and mud and be dead. —Peter Van Sant, CBS News, 8 Feb. 2025

To practice: Start out by lying on your back with feet flat, knees bent, and arms alongside your body, palms face down. —Cory Martin, Verywell Health, 3 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for face down

• chinatown
• tumbledown
• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown

Kids Definition

facedown

adverb

face·​down ˈfās-ˈdau̇n 

: with the face down

floated facedown