What is countenance?

More definitions of "countenance":

• (noun): The appearance conveyed by a person's face.
  Example: "A pleasant countenance"
  Synonyms: visage

• (noun): Formal and explicit approval.
  Synonyms: sanction, endorsement, indorsement, warrant, imprimatur

• (noun): The human face ('kisser' and 'smiler' and 'mug' are informal terms for 'face' and 'phiz' is British).
  Synonyms: physiognomy, phiz, visage, kisser, smiler, mug

Famous quotes containing the word countenance:

“Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all of the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“We all cry out that the world is corrupt,—and I fear too justly,—but we never reflect, what we have to thank for it, and that it is our open countenance of vice, which gives the lye to our private censures of it, which is its chief protection and encouragement.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

“But when your countenance filled up his line,
Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)