# facial

Pronunciation: say "FAY-shuhl" /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/

## Adjective

1. Relating to the face, or affecting it.
   - Simple: Having to do with the face.
   - _The accident left him with minor facial injuries._
   - _Doctors watched for facial swelling after the allergic reaction._
3. Having to do with improving the look of the face, or used for that purpose.
   - Simple: Used to make the face look nicer, like a cream or a treatment.
   - _The salon's facial products are made for sensitive skin._
   - _The clinic offers facial treatments such as peels and fillers._
5. Of a law or regulation's validity: judged on its face, as it appears, rather than after closer analysis or as it is applied in practice.
   - Simple: In law, about how a rule looks on paper, not how it works in real life.
   - _The court rejected the facial challenge but left room for claims about how the statute is enforced._
   - _Critics argued that the policy's facial neutrality hid a pattern of unequal treatment._

## Noun

2. A personal beauty treatment for the face that involves cleansing and moisturizing the skin.
   - Simple: A beauty treatment that cleans your face and puts moisture back into the skin.
   - _She books a facial every month to keep her skin clear._
   - _The hotel spa's menu lists three facials, each ending with a moisturizing mask._
4. A sex act in which one person ejaculates onto another person's face, especially as shown in pornography. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A sex act where one person ejaculates onto another person's face.
   - _The director cut the facial from the scene to get a softer rating._
   - _Some performers refuse to do facials, and the studios they work with know it._
6. A kind of early silent film that focuses on the expressions of an actor's face.
   - Simple: An early silent movie made to show an actor's face and its expressions.
   - _The archive's oldest facial shows a comedian pulling faces for barely a minute._
   - _Facials let audiences study an actor's grimaces and winks in a way the stage never could._

## Other meanings

- (noun) (in some contact sports) A foul play which involves one player hitting another's face.

## Origin

Borrowed in the early 17th century from Medieval Latin faciālis ("face-to-face, direct, open"), from faciēs ("form, figure; face, countenance") + the adjective suffix -ālis ("-al").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/facial (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).