fall flat on one's face
Crash and burn
To fall flat on one's face is to fail completely and conspicuously, often after confident expectations of success: He thought he'd impress the board, but fell flat on his face.
The image is of someone stumbling forward and landing face-first—a humiliating, ungraceful collapse.
Sometimes used literally for physical falls, but the figurative sense of public failure dominates.
- bite the dustFail or perish utterly
- faceplantFall forward onto face
- fall flatFail to impress
- face firstLeading with your features
- tripPlanned travel somewhere
take a tumble · come up short · stumble · humiliation · mortification · egg on one's face · lose face · blunder · eat dirt · fiasco · crash and burn · go down in flames · drop the ball · crash · misstep · slip · flop · strike out
fall flat on one's facetriumph
Resounding, celebrated victory
nail it · knock it out of the park · hit it out of the park · ace it · pull it off
fall flat on one's faceland on one's feet
Recover despite adversity
stick the landing · sail through · breeze through · rise to the occasion
falls, fallen, falling, faller, downfall, rainfall, flatly, flatness, flatten