Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Openness.
  • noun Effrontery; assurance; audaciousness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being barefaced; shamelessness; assurance; audaciousness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or quality of being barefaced.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • States and internationally, we were still struck numb by the lies, the hypocrisy, the barefacedness that surrounded that attack.

    20TH ANNIVERSARY-PROCLAMATION OF SOCIALIST NATUR 1981

  • [32] The candor or barefacedness with which the secretary, Sancho, confesses and even applauds the bad faith of Pizarro in various places in this narrative, which he wrote by order of Pizarro, is worthy of admiration.

    Relación de la conquista del Perú. English Pedro Sancho 1918

  • Not that he minded the cynical barefacedness of the dodge; that was indeed amusing; he was sanguine as to his ability to dominate any situation that might arise, and to a degree indifferent if the upshot should prove his confidence misplaced; and he did not in the least object to letting the enemy show his cards.

    The False Faces Further Adventures from the History of the Lone Wolf Louis Joseph Vance 1906

  • The expression in the family's combined eyes was astonishing in its directness, its barefacedness.

    Peg O' My Heart J. Hartley Manners 1899

  • Morris's indorsement on the ship's papers shows the barefacedness of the transaction.

    Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 Volume 2 1877

  • Guizot has had the barefacedness to say to Lord Normanby that though _originally_ they said that Montpensier should _only_ marry the Infanta _when_ the

    The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 A Selection from her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861 Queen of Great Britain Victoria 1860

  • Sultan derived by far the largest portion of his revenue from the tax levied on the export of slaves -- amounting to somewhere about 10,000 pounds a year -- but _that_ had nothing to do with it of course not, oh dear no! Then there was another very ludicrous phase of this oriental, not to say transcendental, potentate's barefacedness.

    Black Ivory Francis B. Pearson 1859

  • There would be something particularly humorous in the barefacedness of this august Sultan of Zanzibar, if it were connected with anything less horrible than slavery.

    Black Ivory Francis B. Pearson 1859

  • With the usual barefacedness of power not accustomed to find itself disputed, the influence of priests over women is attacked by Protestant and Liberal writers, less for being bad in itself, than because it is a rival authority to the husband, and raises up a revolt against his infallibility.

    The Subjection of Women John Stuart Mill 1839

  • I think if he had been in his sober senses he would not have risked that barefacedness in the presence of thousands of his own friends who knew that I made speeches within six of the seven days at Henry, Marshall County, Augusta,

    Complete Project Gutenberg Abraham Lincoln Writings Abraham Lincoln 1837

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