Phiz

Phiz is a slang term in British English for a person’s face or facial expression. It is most often encountered in older writing and in dialect humor. The term can be used as a noun, as in “a funny phiz,” or in phrases such as “to pull a phiz” or “to make a phiz,” meaning to distort one’s face into a particular expression. Phiz is thought to be short for physiognomy, the study of facial features, and is now considered arch or historical in most contexts.

Phiz is also the pen name of Hablot Knight Browne (1815–1882), a British illustrator famous for his work on Charles Dickens’s novels. He adopted Phiz as a signature for his drawings, distinguishing his work from that of other illustrators. His illustrations appeared in many Dickens editions, including David Copperfield and Bleak House, contributing to the visual identity of Victorian-era literature.

Today, the slang sense of phiz is rarely used in everyday speech, and when it appears it is usually in retrospective writing, quotations, or dialect humor. The term survives mainly as a historical curiosity and as the proper name of the illustrator Phiz.