front
adjective
- be the front portion of a larger whole
verb
- advance money
- meet face to face
noun
- side or face of an item considered to be its primary or front side; side that faces forward
- solution of an spatially extended system connecting two steady states
- disguise
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /fɹʌnt/ / /fɹʊnt/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
- Located at or near the front.
“The front runner was thirty meters ahead of her nearest competitor.”
- Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the front of the mouth, near the hard palate (most often describing a vowel).
“The English word dress has a front vowel in most dialects.”
- Closest or nearest, of a set of futures contracts which expire at particular times, or of the times they expire; (typically, the front month or front year is the next calendar month or year after the current one).
“Contracts are available for every month in the front year but do not extend over a year.”
“Contract months : March, June, September and December[.] Minimum price fluctuation : 0.005 Index Point (1/2 basis point) equivalent to USD 12.50 per tick for the front-year Eurodollar futures[…]”
intj
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
- Used to summon a worker on duty, such as a bellhop.
“Front, boy. Front, boy. Front, boy. Front, boy. You four boys show Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth and their seven—-or so—-Irishmen to 503, 504, 505, 506, and 507.”
“Harshaw yelled “Front!” again and Miriam started toward him.”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
- The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
- The side of a building with the main entrance.
“Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.”
- A field of activity.
“Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.”
- A person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
“Near-synonyms: frontperson, frontman, front man”
“Officially it's a dry-cleaning shop, but everyone knows it's a front for the mafia.”
- The interface or transition zone between two airmasses of different density, often resulting in precipitation. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates airmasses of different temperature.
“We need to take the clothes off the line. The news reported a front is coming in from the east, and we can expect heavy rain and maybe hail.”
- An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
- The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
- The direction of the enemy.
- When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
- A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
- Cheek; boldness; impudence.
- A woman's breast.
“[…] there was one bare breast sticking out, the tip of it disappearing into Enid's father's mouth. She had told her mother about this in perfect certainty that she had seen it. She said, "One of her fronts was stuck in Daddy's mouth."”
“She thought—imagined, really—that her, well, that her fronts were too big. She grew up, you see, in the flapper era, when it was fashionable for women to have very flat fronts.”
- An act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.
“He says he likes hip-hop, but I think it's just a front.”
“You don't need to put on a front. Just be yourself.”
- That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
“like any plain Miss Smith's, who wears a front”
- The most conspicuous part.
“the very head and front of my offending”
- The beginning.
“summer's front”
“So the faulty bridge was moved to the front of the song, creating in the process one of the most striking opening moments in Beatles music.”
- A seafront or coastal promenade.
- The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
“Bless'd with his father's front, his mother's tongue.”
“Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front.”
- The bellhop whose turn it is to answer a client's call, which is often the word "front" used as an exclamation.
- A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth).
“I'm saying, man, them fronts? That car? Who is you, Chiron?”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English front, frunt, frount, from Old French front, frunt, from Latin frōns, frontem (“forehead”). Doublet of frons.
- To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
“The great gate fronting to the north was about four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could easily creep.”
“The door fronted on a narrow run, like a footbridge over a gully, that filled the gap between the house wall and the edge of the bank.”
- To face, be opposite to.
“After saluting her, he led her to a couch that fronted us, where they both sat down, and the young Genoese helped her to a glass of wine, with some Naples biscuit on a salver.”
“[…]down they ran into the dining-room, which fronted the lane, in quest of this wonder; it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate.”
- To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
“Know you not Gaueston hath store of golde, Which may in Ireland purchase him such friends, As he will front the mightiest of vs all,”
“What well-appointed leader fronts us here?”
- To adorn with, at the front; to put on the front.
“Three tiers of balconies fronted with roped columns supporting arched openings looked down on the marble hall.”
- To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
“The velar plosives are often fronted through the influence of a following front vowel, and retracted through the influence of a following back vowel.”
“Finally, the pretonic -e- of this *tsengòrra would have been fronted, yielding *tsingòrra.”
- To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence (or series of adjectives, etc).
“[…] in the clause, only the adjective may be fronted; but if both a past participle and a verbal particle are present, either may be fronted. Topicalization, in which maximal projections are fronted to express pragmatics such as contrast, emphasis, ...”
“A problem facing any syntactic analysis of hyperbaton is that nonconstituent strings are fronted […] In cases where the adjective is fronted with the determiner, the determiner is not doubled […]”
- To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
“Everybody knew Skopas fronted for the fight mob even though he was officially the arena manager.”
- To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
“Ray Winstone is fronting a campaign for the Football Association that aims to stop pushy parents shouting abuse at their children during the grassroots football season.”
- Of an alter in a person with multiplicity (especially in dissociative identity disorder): to be the currently actively presenting member of (a system), in control of the person's body.
“Fronting can be understood as a representation of who controls the system, that is, the person to whom you are speaking. Emilia was typically the person fronting her system.”
- To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
“I'm prepared to say that I fronted you the money for a business deal with me, and the investment paid off brilliantly.”
- To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
“So when I tell people where I'm from and check their reactions, I know in my heart I'm just frontin’. Because the way and where I lived then pales when compared to the way and where many youths are living today.”
“What's with these homies dissin' my girl? / Why do they gotta front?”
- To deceive or attempt to deceive someone with false or disingenuous appearances (on).
“You think that you can front when revelation comes? / You can't front on that”
- To appear before.
“to front court”
- To act cocky, disrespectful and aggressive; to confront (someone).