Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - front

 I. noun  Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French frunt, ~, from Latin ~-, frons  Date: 13th century  1.  a. forehead; also the whole face  b. external and often feigned appearance especially in the face of danger or adversity  2.  a.  (1) vanguard  (2) a line of battle  (3) a zone of conflict between armies  b.  (1) a stand on an issue ; policy  (2) an area of activity or interest progress on the educational ~  (3) a movement linking divergent elements to achieve common objectives; especially a political coalition  3. a side of a building; especially the side that contains the principal entrance  4.  a. the forward part or surface  b.  (1) ~age  (2) a beach promenade at a seaside resort  c. dickey 1a  d. the boundary between two dissimilar air masses  5. archaic beginning  6.  a.  (1) a position ahead of a person or of the foremost part of a thing  (2) — used as a call by a hotel desk clerk in summoning a bellhop  b. a position of leadership or superiority  7.  a. a person, group, or thing used to mask the identity or true character or activity of the actual controlling agent  b. a person who serves as the nominal head or spokesman of an enterprise or group to lend it prestige  II. verb  Date: 1523  intransitive verb  1. to have the ~ or principal side adjacent to something; also to have ~age on something a ten-acre plot ~ing on a lake — Current Biography  2. to serve as a ~ ~ing for special interests  transitive verb  1.  a. con~ went to the woods because I wished…to ~ only the essential facts of life — H. D. Thoreau  b. to appear before daily ~ed him in some fresh splendor — Alfred Tennyson  2.  a. to be in ~ of a lawn ~ing the house  b. to be the leader of (a musical group) appeared as a soloist and ~ed bands  3. to face toward or have ~age on the house ~s the street  4. to supply a ~ to ~ed the building with bricks  5.  a. to articulate (a sound) with the tongue farther forward  b. to move (a word or phrase) to the beginning of a sentence  6. basketball to play in ~ of (an opposing player) rather than between the player and the basket  7. advance 7 ~ed him the cash  III. adjective  Date: 1600  1.  a. of, relating to, or situated at the ~  b. acting as a ~ ~ company  2. articulated at or toward the ~ of the oral passage ~ vowels  3. constituting the first nine holes of an 18-hole golf course  • ~ adverb  IV. abbreviation ~ispiece