facing

Pluralfacings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of face.

   The town is facing its worst drought in decades.

   Facing east, the chapel catches the first light of dawn.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. After be it forms the progressive (the town is facing a drought). In noun positions it is the gerund (facing the facts took courage). It also works much like a preposition of direction, as in this side facing up. Take care with a sentence that opens Facing east…: the subject that follows must be the thing that faces, or the participle dangles.

2. 2
   adjective

   Positioned so as to point or look toward a particular direction.

   The facing balconies looked across the narrow courtyard at each other.

   Guests sat in long facing rows along the banquet hall.

   Similaropposite, opposing

   Note

   The bookmaker's adjective, at home in phrases like the facing page, meaning the one across the open spread, as in Concluded on facing page. It cannot be graded: a page is facing or it is not, never more facing. It sits before its noun. After the noun, English switches to the verb form with an object: a window facing the sea.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The outermost portion of a building's exterior siding.

   The architect chose a limestone facing for the lobby's exterior.

   Weathered facing on the old mill was replaced with fresh brick.

   Similarcladding, veneer, siding, facade

4. 4
   nouncountable

   Fabric applied to the edge of a garment on the underside, finishing and reinforcing the edge.

   The dressmaker pressed the facing flat before topstitching the armhole.

   A crisp interfaced facing helps the waistband hold its shape.

   Note

   A dressmaker's term for the hidden finish. It is a shaped piece cut to follow a neckline, armhole or opening, then sewn on and turned to the inside so the raw edge disappears. It is often backed with interfacing for body. Here the word counts like any object, a facing or two facings, unlike the foundry powder, which is measured rather than counted.

5. 5
   nouncountableplural

   On a military coat, the collar and cuffs, typically made in a color that contrasts with the body of the garment.

   A green facing on the cuff distinguished one battalion from another.

   The regiment was known for the yellow facings on its scarlet coats.

   Note

   Almost always plural here: a regiment's facings. The contrast of color is the whole point. Coats of one body color could carry different collars and cuffs, so the facings did the work of telling units apart. Gwen White's Antique Toys and Their Background (1971) notes that in Cromwell's army some wore scarlet coats with different facings. The usual pattern names both colors: scarlet with yellow facings.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A movement in which soldiers turn on their heels to the right, left, or about.

   The drill instructor called each facing in a clipped, steady rhythm.

   Smart facings during the parade drew applause from the crowd.

   Similarturn

   Note

   Drill vocabulary, usually heard in the plural: a squad practices its facings, which are right, left and about. Each is a turn on the heels made in unison on command, so a formation changes direction without marching. Do not confuse it with the coat's collar and cuffs. Both are military plurals, and only context tells a parade-ground facing from a uniform's.

7. 7
   adjective

   Of a railway switch or junction, diverging in the direction of travel.

   The line split at a facing turnout just beyond the station platform.

   Engineers treat a facing point with extra caution, since a fault can divert a moving train.

   Oppositetrailing

   Note

   Railway language for points and crossovers as an approaching train meets them. At a facing point the line splits ahead, so the train reaches the switch at its toe and may be sent down either route. Its counterpart is trailing, where the routes converge in the direction of travel. The word describes the track layout relative to the train's direction, not the train itself.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   A powdered substance, such as charcoal or bituminous coal, applied to the face of a mold or mixed into its sand to give a casting a fine, smooth surface.

   The molder brushed facing onto the cavity to keep the sand from sticking.

   Without enough facing, the cast iron came out rough and pitted.

   Note

   A foundry word for fine carbon powder, such as charcoal, graphite or ground bituminous coal. The molder dusts it onto the mold cavity or works it into the sand nearest the pattern. As molten metal enters, the powder burns to gas and keeps metal and sand apart, so the casting comes away clean. It is a mass noun: some facing, too little facing, never a facing.

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