front

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The forward part or surface, as of a building.
2. n. The area, location, or position directly before or ahead.
3. n. A position of leadership or superiority.
4. n. The forehead or face, especially of a bird or other animal.
5. n. Demeanor or bearing, especially in the presence of danger or difficulty.
6. n. An outward, often feigned, appearance or manner: They put up a good front.
7. n. Land bordering a lake, river, or street.
8. n. A promenade along the water at a resort.
9. n. A detachable part of a man's dress shirt covering the chest; a dickey.
10. n. The most forward line of a combat force.
11. n. The area of contact between opposing combat forces; a battlefront.
12. n. Meteorology The interface between air masses of different temperatures or densities.
13. n. A field of activity: the economic front.
14. n. A group or movement uniting various individuals or organizations for the achievement of a common purpose; a coalition.
15. n. A nominal leader lacking in real authority; a figurehead.
16. n. An apparently respectable person, group, or business used as a cover for secret or illegal activities.
17. n. Archaic The first part; the beginning.
18. n. Archaic The face; the countenance.
19. adj. Of, relating to, aimed at, or located in the front: the front lines; the front row; front property on Lake Tahoe.
20. adj. Linguistics Designating vowels produced at or toward the front of the oral cavity, such as the vowels of green and get.
21. v. To look out on; face: a house that fronts the ocean.
22. v. To meet in opposition; confront.
23. v. To provide a front for.
24. v. To serve as a front for.
25. v. Music To lead (a group of musicians): "Goodman . . . became the first major white bandleader to front an integrated group” ( Bill Barol).
26. v. Informal To provide before payment: "In . . . personal liability suits, a lawyer is fronting both time and money” ( Richard Faille).
27. v. Linguistics To move (a word or phrase) to the beginning of a clause or sentence, typically for emphasis or contrast.
28. v. Linguistics To cause (a vowel) to be pronounced farther toward the front of the oral cavity.
29. v. To have a front; face onto something else: Her property fronts on the highway.
30. v. To provide an apparently respectable cover for secret or illegal activities: fronting for organized crime.
31. interj. Used by a desk clerk in a hotel to summon a bellhop.
32. idiom. front and center In the most prominent position.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The forehead; in technical use, the frons.
2. n. The forehead or face as expressive of character, temper, or disposition; characteristic facial appearance.
3. n. Hence Manner of facing or opposing; attitude or bearing when confronted with anything, as in meeting a foe, a threatened danger, or an accuser: as, to put on a bold front; to await the enemy with a calm front. Sometimes used in the sense of cool assurance or impudence.
4. n. The part or side of anything which seems to look out or to be directed forward; the most forward part or surface: as, the front of a house; the front of an army.
5. n. Position or place directly ahead, or before the face or that part of anything which is regarded as the face; position in or toward that part to which one's view or course is directed: used chiefly in the phrases in front and in front of: as, right in front of them stood a lion.
6. n. Specifically, in a theater and the like— The part nearest the stage or platform: as, to occupy seats in front.
7. n. The part before the actors or speakers; the auditorium: as, the stage manager was in front (that is, not on the stage, but in the auditorium).
8. n. A sort of half-wig worn by women with a cap or bonnet, to cover only the front part of the head: distinctively called a false front.
9. n. Same as shirt-front and dicky, 3.
10. n. One of the surfaces of a diatom frustule marked by the line of juncture of the two valves, as distinguished from the side, which is the surface formed of a single valve.
11. n. Eccles., same as frontal, 5 .
12. Relating to the front or face; frontal.
13. Having a position in the front; foremost: as, the front steps.
14. To meet face to face; come into the presence of; confront.
15. To oppose face to face; oppose directly; encounter.
16. To stand in front of, or opposed or opposite to, or over against; face.
17. To supply with a front; furnish or adorn in front: as, to front a house with granite.
18. To have the face or front toward some point of the compass or some object; be in a confronting or opposed position.
19. To stand foremost.
20. To stand or go in opposition; go counter.
21. n. In theat, language: That part of a theater which, from the actor's point of view, lies in front of the curtain; the auditorium or audience part; hence, the audience itself: as, to be in the front.
22. n. Everybody engaged to work before the curtain.
23. n. Milit., the entire system of defenses constructed along one side of the polygon inclosing the site to be fortified: as, a bastion or polygonal front.
24. n. The forehead-piece of a bridle, generally of leather with metal trimmings.
25. n. The exterior surface of a lock mortised into a door; the portion of a lock that is visible and through which the bolt, passes; in a rim-lock, the end facing the doorframe.
26. n. In entomology, practically the forehead; the part of the face between the eyes and between the vertex and the clypeus.
27. In phonology, modified in utterance by the configuration of the central portion of the front or upper side of the tongue.
28. In phonology, to pronounce with the front of the tongue, or as a ‘front’ sound. See front, II. adjective 3.

Wiktionary

1. n. The foremost side of something or the end that faces the direction it normally moves.
2. n. The side of a building with the main entrance.
3. n. A person or institution acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
4. n. meteorology The interface or transition zone between two airmasses of different density, often resulting in precipitation. Since the temperature distribution is the most important regulator of atmospheric density, a front almost invariably separates airmasses of different temperature.
5. n. military An area where armies are engaged in conflict, especially the line of contact.
6. n. military The lateral space occupied by an element measured from the extremity of one flank to the extremity of the other flank.
7. n. military The direction of the enemy.
8. n. military When a combat situation does not exist or is not assumed, the direction toward which the command is faced.
9. n. obsolete A major military subdivision of the Soviet Army.
10. n. informal An act, show, façade, persona: an intentional and false impression of oneself.
11. n. UK a seafront or coastal promenade.
12. adj. Located at or near the front.
13. adj. comparable (phonetics) Of a vowel pronounced near the tip of the tongue.
14. v. intransitive, dated To face (on, to); to be pointed in a given direction.
15. v. transitive To face, be opposite to.
16. v. transitive To face up to, to meet head-on, to confront.
17. v. transitive To adorn the front of; to have on the front.
18. v. phonetics, transitive, intransitive To pronounce with the tongue in a front position.
19. v. linguistics, transitive To move (a word or clause) to the start of a sentence.
20. v. intransitive, slang To act as a front (for); to cover (for).
21. v. transitive To lead or be the spokesperson of (a campaign, organisation etc.).
22. v. transitive, colloquial To provide money or financial assistance in advance to.
23. v. intransitive To assume false or disingenuous appearances.
24. v. to appear before, as in to front court.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The forehead or brow, the part of the face above the eyes; sometimes, also, the whole face.
2. n. The forehead, countenance, or personal presence, as expressive of character or temper, and especially, of boldness of disposition, sometimes of impudence; seeming; . an attitude and demeanor intended to represent one's feelings, even if not actually felt.
3. n. The part or surface of anything which seems to look out, or to be directed forward; the fore or forward part; the foremost rank; the van; -- the opposite to back or rear.
4. n. A position directly before the face of a person, or before the foremost part of a thing.
5. n. The most conspicuous part.
6. n. That which covers the foremost part of the head: a front piece of false hair worn by women.
7. n. The beginning.
8. n. (Fort.) All the works along one side of the polygon inclosing the site which is fortified.
9. n. (Phon.) The middle of the upper part of the tongue, -- the part of the tongue which is more or less raised toward the palate in the pronunciation of certain sounds, as the vowel i in machine, e in bed, and consonant y in you. See Guide to Pronunciation, §10.
10. n. Hotel Cant The call boy whose turn it is to answer the call, which is often the word “front,” used as an exclamation.
11. adj. Of or relating to the front or forward part; having a position in front; foremost.
12. v. To oppose face to face; to oppose directly; to meet in a hostile manner.
13. v. To appear before; to meet.
14. v. To face toward; to have the front toward; to confront.
15. v. To stand opposed or opposite to, or over against as, his house fronts the church.
16. v. To adorn in front; to supply a front to.
17. v. To have or turn the face or front in any direction.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals
2. n. the outward appearance of a person
3. adj. relating to or located in the front
4. v. be oriented in a certain direction, often with respect to another reference point; be opposite to
5. n. the side that is forward or prominent
6. n. the line along which opposing armies face each other
7. v. confront bodily
8. n. a sphere of activity involving effort
9. n. the side that is seen or that goes first
10. n. (meteorology) the atmospheric phenomenon created at the boundary between two different air masses
11. n. the part of something that is nearest to the normal viewer
12. n. the immediate proximity of someone or something
13. n. a person used as a cover for some questionable activity