face the music

1. 1.

   accept the unpleasant consequences of one's actions

   Synonymscarry the can

   Broaderbear

   United Kingdom

Questions about face the music

What does face the music mean?

face the music means "accept the unpleasant consequences of one's actions".

What is another word for face the music?

Close synonyms include carry the can. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is face the music a common word?

face the music is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.