English

A facepalm

Alternative forms

• face-palm
• face palm

Noun

facepalm ‎(plural facepalms)

1. A gesture of bringing one palm or both palms to the face, with various interpretations.
   • 2008, Sara Vance-Hogan, Dies Irae: Love and Friendship, page 243:

     A look of realization crossed her face; she looked like she may have given herself a face palm if her hands weren't full.

   • 2012 July 3, Marina Hyde, “A lesson in Olymp-o-nomics”, in The Guardian:

     According to a study by me, this generates a multibillion facepalm for the UK economy, making everyone who considers it at least eleventy hundred pounds unhappier.

Translations

Verb

facepalm ‎(third-person singular simple present facepalms, present participle facepalming, simple past and past participle facepalmed)

1. To bring the palm of one’s hand to one’s face as an expression of mixed humor and disbelief or disgust or shame, for example, when one is caught off-guard with a particularly bad pun.
2. To bring one’s face down to one’s cupped hand or hands.

Usage notes

Found primarily in real-time text communication on the Internet, often involving image macros or ASCII art of someone facepalming.

Coordinate terms

• to smack one's forehead

Translations

See also

• headslapper

References

1. ↑ http://wordspy.com/words/facepalm.asp