Melting face emoji
🫠 is the face for quietly falling apart — embarrassment, dread, heat. Copy it here and see why it caught on so fast.
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What the melting face means
🫠 (melting face) is a smiling face sliding into a puddle. It was added in Emoji 14.0 (2021), proposed by Jennifer Daniel and the linguist Neil Cohn, and it caught on faster than almost any recent emoji because it names a feeling nothing else covered: quietly falling apart while pretending you are fine. Embarrassment, dread, overwhelm, awkwardness and simply being too hot all melt the same way. The smile is the point — the face is still trying.
It is comic, not tragic. “Called the teacher ‘mum’ 🫠” is mortified; “inbox after two weeks off 🫠” is overwhelmed; “38 degrees today 🫠” is literal. When the feeling is genuinely bad, the sad emoji guide has faces that do not joke about it. And because 🫠 is new, older devices show a box; 😅 is the closest universal fallback.
Compare the options
| Emoji | Name | Use it for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| melting faceU+1FAE0 | Quietly overwhelmed, embarrassed, dread, heat | Newer; may not render on old devices | |
| grinning face with sweatU+1F605 | Awkward laugh, relief | Displays everywhere | |
| face with peeking eyeU+1FAE3 | Cringe, peeking | Same release | |
| face with spiral eyesU+1F635 U+200D U+1F4AB | Dizzy, overloaded | See the confused emoji guide | |
| hot faceU+1F975 | Hot, flustered | See the hot emoji guide |
How people use it
- Embarrassment: “waved back at someone who wasn’t waving at me 🫠”
- Dread: “dentist tomorrow 🫠”
- Overwhelm: “three deadlines, one day 🫠”
- Heat: “no aircon on the bus 🫠”
- Fondness: occasionally “melting” at something cute, like 🥹
Chat examples
Real messages with 🫠, and a reply that fits.
it’s 38 degrees 🫠
melting too
forgot my own password 🫠
again?
🫠 Monday
same
Questions people ask
What does 🫠 mean in a text?
The sender is quietly falling apart — embarrassed, overwhelmed, dreading something or just too hot — and joking about it.
What does 🫠 mean from a girl or a guy?
The same from anyone: awkwardness or overwhelm played for laughs. It is not a flirting emoji, though it can appear after an awkward flirt.
Why can’t I see the melting face?
It was added in Emoji 14.0 (2021). Older phones and desktop fonts show a box. Ask the other person to update or use 😅.
About this guide
Written and maintained by the Emoji Directory editorial team, without ads or sponsorship. Meanings describe how the emoji is commonly used in public posts and messages, not an official definition. Names, code points, versions, keywords and translations come from the Unicode Emoji 18.0 and CLDR data; shortcodes from the gemoji project. Last reviewed . Spotted a mistake or a new usage? Tell us, or read how the directory is made.
