in front of

English

Pronunciation

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Preposition

in front of

1. At or near the front part of (something).
   • 1872, Charles Hardwick, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore‎:

     Both parties met in front of the Castle, the torch-bearers numbering nearly one hundred.

2. In the presence of, in view of (someone).

   Don't fight in front of the children!

   • 2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Sareen, 11:30 from the start, in Penn Radio‎:

     What happened to me was, right in front of my eyes- I was there with my brother- and right in front of my eyes, they, a team of monkeys came by to this poor guy that sells fruit for a living- and, I don't know, probably that was all his kids were gonna eat from the, you know, the money he had to make, you know, sell the fruit. But all of the sudden just a bunch of monkeys came by robbed the whole thing he had. It was like thirty of them, just robbed him blind the poor guy. He was chasing them all over. He would chase one and they would jump off and then come back and it was like the funniest thing I've ever seen.

3. Located before, ahead of, previous to (someone or something).

   I'll take the one in front of the black one.

   Write ‘Professor’ in front of her name.

   • a. 2002, “Mandi”, quoted in Nicholas E. Brink, Grendel and His Mother: Healing the Traumas of Childhood Through Dreams, Imagery, and Hypnosis, Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. (2002), →ISBN, page 1:

     Several people are in front of me in line. The woman next in front of me is older, probably in her fifties.

Synonyms

• (at or near the front part of): before
• (in the presence of (someone)): around, in the company of, in the presence of, before
• (located before): ahead of, before

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "at or near the front part of"): after, behind, in back of
• (antonym(s) of "in the presence of (someone)"): away from, in the absence of, without
• (antonym(s) of "located before"): after, behind, in back of

Translations

References

• “in front of”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press (2003), →ISBN.