smooth-faced, a.
[f. smooth a. 15.]
1. Of persons: Having a face free from hair, wrinkles, etc.; clean-shaven, beardless.
| ? c 1580 in Nichols Topographer II. 400 Thomas Myeld in whight armours faire, and smooth-fased. 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John xi. 42 A smooth-facte Nunne is all the Abbots wealth. 1621 Quarles Esther iv, Hopefull Princes (ill-aduis'd By young, and smooth-fac'd Councell). 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2056/4 John Randall,..smooth faced, aged about 20. 1756 C. Smart tr. Horace, Sat. i. x. (1826) II. 81 The smooth-faced [L. pulcher] Hermogenes. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours w. Mystics (1860) I. 89 No shavelings,..like the smooth-faced sanctities of the later calendar. 1883 Standard 16 May 5/6 Marks of small-pox were so prevalent that it was common to distinguish one free from them as a smooth-faced person. |
| transf. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. v. 33 Let thy Heires..Enrich the time to come, with Smooth-fac'd Peace, With smiling Plenty. |
b. fig. Having or assuming a bland, ingratiating, or insinuating expression; plausible in manner.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 573 He that winnes of all..: That smooth-fac'd Gentleman, tickling commoditie. 1603 J. Davies (Heref.) Humours Heaven Wks. (Grosart) I. 43/2 Rogh-cast the skin of smooth-fac'd glozing Guile With burning blisters. 1682 Creech Lucretius (1683) 170 Nor could the treacherous smile Of smooth-fac't Wares tempt one poor man to toyl. 1812 Shelley Address Prose Wks. 1888 I. 228 Take care then of smooth-faced impostors. 1862 Sala Ship Chandler ii. 22 How much has that smooth-faced hound given you to stand in with him? |
2. fig. Of words, etc.: Specious, plausible.
| 1620–6 Quarles Feast for Worms 415 They whose smooth-fac'd words become the Altar. 1677 Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 194 Weak heads cannot see the far end of a smooth-faced doctrine. |
3. Of things: Having a smooth face or surface.
| 1647 H. More Poems 177 The rough Earth, one smooth-fac'd Round would show. 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche ii. cxxxix, For his rich Ring of smoothfac'd Diamond. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) II. 68 Other smooth-faced and stuccoed edifices. 1896 Daily News 19 Dec. 6/4 A smooth-faced cloth in a soft tone of heliotrope. |