From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishin front of somebody/somethingin front of somebody/somethinga) further forward than someone or something OPP behind He was standing in front of her in the lunch queue, and they just got talking. He walked along in front of me, holding the lantern. Suddenly, something ran across the road in front of the car. An old wooden desk stood in front of the window. b) facing someone or something The door opened and Harriet stood in front of him. She sat down in front of the mirror and brushed her hair carefully. Billy crouched in front of the fire to warm his hands. c) outside a building, near its entrance There was a small garden in front of the house. It was raining as we parked in front of the hotel. d) SEEif you say or do something in front of someone, you do it where they can see or hear you Don’t swear in front of the children! The match was played in front of a crowd of 8,000. e) FUTUREif you have problems or difficulties in front of you, you will soon need to deal with them → in front of your eyes at eye1(9)USAGE: In front of, opposite• In front of a building means directly outside the front of it and on the same side of the street: The car stopped in front of our hotel.• Opposite a building means outside the front of it on the other side of a street, area of land etc: There are some shops opposite the school. → front
Examples from the Corpus
in front of somebody/something• One video shows him piling up hundreds of thousands of dollars in front of the owner of a popular television station.• And now I think he's so far in front of the others it's not true.• The thrills and chills come from watching great athletes play their hearts out in front of wildly partisan spectators.• Can't see what's in front of their noses.• This big man stood in front of me.• They stood in front of his locker.• After that, they picketed like crazy, all over town, in front of banks, businesses, federal buildings.• I saw the sand spurt up in front of me as bullets tore into the ground. 