Imagine you just endured the most horrible day at work; everything that could go wrong went wrong. Then you come home to find that all the cupboards are bare and because you worked so late, no shops are open. This is pretty much the ideal scenario for the Confounded Face. It’s the emoji equivalent of saying “damn it all” before breaking down into tears. Usually, this face requires no additional text to highlight the meaning. In a messaging context, the emoji can be used to express sadness quite effectively. Let’s say that you have just got into your car and you realise that despite your frantic key twisting, the car won’t start. A plump, oily man at your local garage tells you it’s going to cost about a quarter of your months salary. Sharing this news with a friend, using the confounded face is a great opener before you recite the sad (and rather expensive) tale.

Confounded Face was approved in Unicode 6.0 (2010) and later added to Emoji 1.0. This Unicode update brought us popular emojis like Smiling Face and Tears of Joy.