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The meaning and origin of the expression: In your face

In your face

What's the meaning of the phrase 'In your face'?

In a bold confrontational manner.

What's the origin of the phrase 'In your face'?

The expression 'in your face' originated in the US in the 1970s. Many of the earliest citations relate to confrontations in sport, especially initially in basketball. The earliest use of the term in print that I can find is from Jackson and Rosen's exploration of the US basketball scene Maverick: More Than a Game, 1975:

If the ball went in, they'd say, 'In your face, mother.'
It's just a display of raw ego power - one man forcing another to submit.

In your faceMore recently the phrase has often been used to describe the nose-to-nose pre-fight confrontations between boxers.

'In your face' is a recent addition to a largish collection of phrases and sayings that we use about faces:

Face the music
About face
Lose face/save face
Cut off your nose to spite your face
The face that launched a thousand ships
Talk to the hand, cause the face ain't listening

Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.

By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

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