lose face
Verb
Meaning
lose face (third-person singular simple present loses face, present participle losing face, simple past and past participle lost face)
(idiomatic) To lose the respect of others; to be humiliated or experience public disgrace.
Antonyms
Related terms
Examples
Like it or not, to reach middle age with less money or less prestige than our father had is somewhat to lose face. Stupid of course, when put like that, but who is prepared to argue that we are not stupid in several important ways?
The question wasn't whether moving psychoactive alien seedpods between worlds was a good idea so much as whether someone was going to lose face in front of a committee meeting. Thus were the great decisions of history made.
Digory helps construct the raft, but ends up sawing a branch from a talking tree necessary to complete it, in order not to lose face with Polly.
He kept this plan a secret, in the event that a training accident would prevent his entry and cause him to lose face.
If he were to end it, he might lose face with the military, always a dangerous thing for a totalitarian ruler.
Casey also justified this request by stating that the contact in the Iranian government might otherwise lose face or be executed, and hostages might be killed.