“Of course, you've looked death in the face before, haven't you?” said Rita Skeeter, watching him closely. “How would you say that's affected you?”
I guess it could be a figure of speech as if looked somebody in the face perhaps. Maybe, Rita was saying Harry had been face-to-face with death? What does it exactly mean?
Best Answer
To look someone in the face means to look directly at their face at relatively close range. You see them clearly, standing face to face. When you have looked someone in the face, you have had a "close encounter" with them.
Death is often personified.
If you have had a close encounter with Death, you've been in a life-threatening situation, one in which you could have lost your life. You were in mortal peril. You have had a "close call" with death.