face the music

English

WOTD – 21 June 2024

Origin uncertain; possible derivations which have been suggested include the following:^[1]

A performer on a stage facing the music from the orchestra pit when confronting a possibly hostile audience.
The historical act of a soldier who was dishonourably discharged from military service being paraded in front of other soldiers to the sound of a drum or music.
A soldier facing the noise of battle (music being military slang for the sound of gunfire or other ordnance).

face the music (third-person singular simple present faces the music, present participle facing the music, simple past and past participle faced the music)

(idiomatic) To accept or confront the unpleasant consequences of one's actions. [from 19th c.]
Synonyms: face up to, pay the penalty, pay the price
- 1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 533:
  Hudson personally would not face the music at that meeting and the business could hardly proceed for groans and hisses and cries of "Hudson! Hudson! Why is Hudson not here?" and so the ungrateful shareholders to whom Hudson had generously paid dividends out of their own capital cast out Hudson bag and baggage, including therein the agreement with the Newmarket Railway.

to accept or confront the unpleasant consequences of one’s actions

^ “to face the music, phrase” under “face, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “face the music, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.