facedown

[ adverb feys-doun; noun feys-doun ]

adverb

1. with the face or the front or upper surface downward:

   He was lying facedown on the floor. Deal the cards facedown on the table.

noun

1. Also face-down. Informal. a direct confrontation; showdown.

Word History and Origins

Origin of facedown¹

1930–35; facedown ( def 1 ) face + down ¹; facedown ( def 2 ) noun use of verb phrase face down

Example Sentences

For the first time, she describes waking up on the afternoon that he died in August 1977 and sensing something was wrong, before running into her father's room across the hallway and seeing him facedown on the bathroom floor.

From BBC

Ra’Miyah’s brother had unbuckled her from her car seat, and Williams found her facedown on the floor in the backseat of the van.

From Seattle Times

For decades, police across the United States have been warned that the common tactic of handcuffing someone facedown could turn deadly if officers pin them on the ground with too much pressure or for too long.

From Seattle Times

Yet AP found instructors at several state-certified training centers continue to teach — wrongly — that holding someone facedown doesn’t cause death by what’s known as positional asphyxia, which happens when the chest can’t expand, starving the body of oxygen.

From Seattle Times

Since at least 2011, Georgia has mandated that officers learn how to safely restrain subjects facedown, according to the agency that oversees training.

From Seattle Times