faze

English

Alternative forms

• phase (see notes)
• feaze

Etymology

From English dialectal (Kentish) feeze, feese (“to alarm, discomfit, frighten”), from Middle English fēsen (“to chase, drive away; put to flight; discomfit, frighten, terrify”), from Old English fēsan, fȳsan (“to send forth; to hasten, impel, stimulate; to banish, drive away, put to flight; to prepare oneself”), from Proto-West Germanic *funsijan, from Proto-Germanic *funsijaną (“to predispose, make favourable; to make ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go; to walk”). The word is cognate with Old Saxon fūsian (“to strive”), Old Norse fýsa (“to drive, goad; to admonish”).

Citations for faze in the Oxford English Dictionary start in 1830, and usage was established by 1890.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: fāz, IPA^(key): /feɪz/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /fæɪz/

  • Audio (AU)

    (file)

• Homophone: phase
• Rhymes: -eɪz

Verb

faze (third-person singular simple present fazes, present participle fazing, simple past and past participle fazed)

1. (transitive, informal) To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb.

   Jumping out of an airplane does not faze him, yet he is afraid to ride a roller coaster.

   • 1965, Catullus, translated by Barriss Mills, The Carmina of Catullus: A Verse Translation, : Purdue University Studies, →OCLC, carminum 42, page 71:

     But we're / Not getting anywhere. Nothing / fazes her.

   • 1978, “Living in a Dream”, in On the Edge, performed by Sea Level:

     In the dreary world / That we're living in / It's fashionable / To let nothing faze you

   • 1990, “Assessment”, in Broadening the Base of Treatment for Alcohol Problems: Report of a Study by a Committee of the Institute of Medicine, Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, →ISBN, section III (Aspects of Treatment), pages 252–253:

     Some individuals "can't hold their liquor" and become thoroughly intoxicated on small amounts of alcohol which would not faze most social drinkers.

   • 2009, Richard Wigmore, The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 192:

     He sticks it out even further in the scherzo, fazing the listener with displaced accents, and then inserting a malicious pause just when we seem to have found our feet.

   • 2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 28 March 2018:

     [Gareth] Southgate should be absolutely clear now that [Jordan] Pickford is not fazed by the big occasion but, on the flip-side, he might not be too thrilled his goalkeeper was involved so much.

Usage notes

The spelling phase is sometimes used for faze, including by such notables as Mark Twain and The New York Times. Nonetheless, many writers avoid it anyway, simply because many readers will believe it to be an error (even if it isn't one). A memory aid for this prescription is that faze and frighten both begin with f.

Derived terms

• unfazeable
• unfazed

Translations

References

Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Portuguese fazer.

Verb

faze

1. do, make

References

• Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: fa‧ze

Verb

faze

1. (Brazilian spelling) second-person singular imperative of fazer

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

faze f

1. inflection of fază:
   1. indefinite plural
   2. indefinite genitive/dative singular