phiz

English

Etymology

Clipping of physiognomy, late 17th c.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪz

Noun

phiz (plural phizzes or phizes)

1. (chiefly Britain, colloquial) The face.
   • 1818, William Cowper, “Conversation”, in Poems, volume 1, page 163:

     The emphatic speaker dearly loves to oppose,
     In contact inconvenient, nose to nose.
     As if the gnomon on his neighbour's phiz,
     Touched with the magnet had attracted his.

   • 1831 June, “The Lord Advocate on Reform”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 29, number 181, page 980:

     […] and whatever the feelings which now agitate our secret hearts, — you see we are resolved at least to put on a cheerful phiz, and not to die either of the dumps or the mumps, or any other of the dismals.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night‎^[1], volume 8:

     "As for thee, thou givest me good-morrow with thy one eye and thy lameness and thy ill-omened phiz and I become poor and bankrupt and hungry!"

   • 1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural:

     Flores stood in a corner with a melancholy expression on his phiz.

   • 2017, Michael Butler, “Zizou is a rock. Zizou is an island”, in The Guardian:

     Sulley Muntari gets fresh and funky on social media disgrace Twitter after claims were made that he introduced his open palm to the phiz of a referee...

Synonyms

• fizzog, phizog