1Having two sharply contrasting aspects or characteristics.
‘the Janus-faced nature of American society’
‘Every day they confront a Janus-faced social discourse on female gender, which wedges them between two conflicting ideals of femininity.’
‘It is thus a Janus-faced entity, a paradoxical phenomenon that reflects the paradoxical nature of the human condition.’
‘A Janus-faced entity who, looking inward, sees himself as a self-contained unique whole, looking outward as a dependent part.’
‘I would like to propose a term for the texts that voice this Janus-faced perspective on grief and for the wider cultural syndrome of which they were a part.’
‘Various objects explore this confluence, a Janus-faced culture that is highlighted in portraits of Mehmed by the Venetian Gentile Bellini from 1480 and the Ottoman painter Sinan Bey.’
‘It was a Janus-faced county, a place where people were "cultivated," a place of "wealthy families, educational and religious interests, and general enterprise."’
‘In this sense, grammar is part of a Janus-faced psychological and neurological process: each person learns and uses a private system which blends into a social consensus.’
‘It is more or less reduced to Janus-faced etiquettes of the moral and grotesque body, placed by the author, as it seems, where most suitable.’
‘This demonstrates the Janus-faced quality of tradition: In the culture that produced the tradition, it is old, while in the culture that adopts it, it is brand-new.’
‘Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why one of our biggest stars is such a Janus-faced mess of narcissism and self-loathing.’
‘This Janus-faced image of the Columbia represents both a vexing conundrum for Pacific Northwesterners and a battleground over what the river means to the human community.’
‘These reveal a Janus-faced director, working firmly in a tradition of Victorian hagiography, but clearly searching for contemporary relevance.’
‘Indeed, the reform policies of Napoleon reflected the regime's Janus-faced character that combined subordination and exploitation, innovation and progress.’
‘BAGHDAD - The Iraqi national psyche is a Janus-faced beast when it comes to belief.’
‘Most of his summer vacations, spent in St Florian and, latterly, in Steyr, were devoted to intensive work on his symphonies, beginning with the Janus-faced Symphony no.’
‘Sade is Beauvoir's Janus-faced ally.’
‘The Janus-faced grief we witness in this writing, then, and its despair-in-advance of deploying familiar consolations, is an inspiring precedent for negotiating "double sorrow" even now.’
‘Steward comes to function as a representative of Ruby's politically rational self-narrative, while Deacon continues to represent the ambivalent, Janus-faced boundary between the nation's inside and outside.’
‘And I suggest that citizenship education needs to start by confronting the Janus-faced nature of people's anger, and making the most of it.’
1.1Insincere or deceitful.
‘a Janus-faced politician’
‘He was the committee man selectively dealing out the Janus-faced news.’
‘Containment needs better friends than the Janus-faced House of Saud.’
‘Now, the Janus-faced posturing of post-Grimond Liberalism is no longer adequate.’
‘While the structures of democracy, capitalism, and defense basically reflected the value system of WASP America, culture presented itself in a Janus-faced manner.’
‘There are many manifestations of this Janus-faced condition.’
false, fake, hollow, artificial, feigned, pretended, put-on, exaggerated, overdone, lacking sincerity, not candid, not frank
Origin
Late 17th century referring to the Roman deity Janus.
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