set one's face against
To be very much against; strongly disapprove.
The banker's daughter wanted to marry a poor boy, but her father set his face against it.
set the pace
pace-setter
pace-setting
To decide on a rate of speed of travel or rules that are followed by others.
The scoutmaster set the pace so that the shorter boys would not get tired trying to keep up.
Louise set the pace in selling tickets for the school play.
John is the pace-setter of the class.
Bob's time in the cross-country race was pace-setting.
The country is growing at a pace-setting rate.
shoot off one's mouth
shoot off one's face
To give opinions without knowing all the facts; talk as if you know everything.
Tom has never been to Florida, but he's always shooting his mouth off about how superior Florida is to California.
I want to study the problem before I shoot off my face.
The editor of the newspaper is always shooting his mouth off about the trouble in Africa.
show one's face
To be seen; appear.
Bill is afraid to show his face since Tom threatened to beat him up.
Judy is a wonderful mimic but she is too shy to show her face on stage.
After cheating on the test, Chris was ashamed to show his face.
skim the surface
To do something very superficially.
He seems knowledgeable in many different areas but his familiarity is very superficial, since he only skims the surface of everything he touches.
slap in the face
An insult; a disappointment.
We felt that it was a slap in the face when our gift was returned unopened.
Doris thought it was a slap in the face when her boyfriend invited another girl to the dance.
To insult; embarrass; make feel bad.
John slapped our club in the face by saying that everyone in it was stupid.
I don't want to slap her in the face by not coming to her party.
snail's pace
at a snail's pace
A very slow movement forward.
Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.
The donkey on which he was riding moved at a snail's pace.
space probe
An unmanned spacecraft other than an Earth satellite fitted with instruments which gather and transmit information about other planets in the solar system (e.g., Venus, Mars, and Jupiter) on what are called fly-by missions, i.e., without the craft landing on any of these bodies.
Both the U.S.A. and Russia have sent up many a space probe in the past decade.