From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsay something to somebody’s facesay something to somebody’s faceinformalTELL to criticize someone or say something unpleasant directly to them instead of saying it to someone else I knew they wanted me to leave, even though they wouldn’t say it to my face. → say
Examples from the Corpus
say something to somebody’s face• Never write anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't say to the person's face.• If you had anything to say, you said it to their face.• I'd never say it to her face, but her hair looks terrible.• It is, may I suggest, much easier to say goodbye to a face than to a wooden box. 