the.com/facelift
Surgery that promises ten years younger and delivers one year of unmistakably operated.
means A cosmetic surgical procedure that tightens sagging facial skin and muscle to create a more youthful appearance.
from A straightforward 20th-century compound of 'face' plus 'lift' — the lifting sense borrowed from the literal act of raising something up. The term jumped into figurative use almost immediately, so that by mid-century a 'facelift' for a building, a brand, or a tired old policy was as common as one for an actual face — proof that the procedure's most durable product may be the metaphor, not the surgery.
- real name
- rhytidectomy, which sounds worse somehow
- actual target
- skin and tissue, not the skull
- average lifespan
- results last roughly 5 to 10 years
- the tell
- ears get tugged, hairlines quietly migrate