I was reading this quote which a friend of mine posted on facebook, I didn't understand this particular sentence, "t's looking at an evil act square in the face and saying, ‘I forgive that evil act", the existence of the word "square" is not understandable here at all.
When I asked him, he told me that it's an expression in English but he can't explain it.
So my question is, What does the word "square" mean in this expression? What is the expression? could you provide other examples for that expression?
Here is the quote,
Forgiveness isn't just ignoring what happened. It isn't just pretending it was okay or justifying it. It's looking at an evil act square in the face and saying, ‘I forgive that evil act.’ It's asking God to forgive, as well. It's letting go of the desire to punish, kill, and destroy. And then it's going one step further. It's blessing the person who perpetrated such horrific evil. It's praying for the one who was once an enemy and may still be an enemy. It's giving the evildoer–the murderer, the rapist, the thief–love. Forgiveness is freedom. In so many ways, it's the only true path to freedom, and it's a hard path to walk.
Best Answer
Thanks for providing context!
The answer is in most any dictionary, which shows that square can be a modifier meaning directly, firmly, straight, in a solid manner. The opposite would be tentatively or indirectly.
Examples: I kicked him square in the stomach.
I knocked her square off her chair.
She looked me square in the eye.
The use of square in such sentences is common. But it sounds a bit colloquial. I would stick with one of the synonyms in more formal communication.