nose

[[t]no͟ʊz[/t]]

♦♦♦

noses, nosing, nosed

1) N-COUNT: oft poss N Your nose is the part of your face which sticks out above your mouth. You use it for smelling and breathing.

She wiped her nose with a tissue...

She's got funny eyes and a big nose.

2) N-COUNT: oft poss N The nose of a vehicle such as a car or aeroplane is the front part of it.

Sue parked off the main street, with the van's nose pointing away from the street.

3) N-COUNT You can refer to your sense of smell as your nose.

The river that runs through Middlesbrough became ugly on the eye and hard on the nose.

4) N-SING: usu by a N If a horse wins a race by a nose, it wins by a very small distance. [mainly AM]

Chirkpar rattled past him on the right to snatch the prize by a nose.

5) V-ERG If a vehicle noses in a certain direction or if you nose it there, you move it slowly and carefully in that direction.

[V adv/prep] He could not see the driver as the car nosed forward...

[V adv/prep] A motorboat nosed out of the mist and nudged into the branches of a tree...

[V n prep/adv] Ben drove past them, nosing his car into the garage.

6) → See also , toffee-nosed

7) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you keep your nose clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble. [INFORMAL]

If you kept your nose clean, you had a job for life.

8) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you follow your nose to get to a place, you go straight ahead or follow the most obvious route.

Just follow your nose and in about five minutes you're at the old railway.

9) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you follow your nose, you do something in a particular way because you feel it should be done like that, rather than because you are following any plan or rules.

You won't have to think, just follow your nose.

10) PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n If you say that someone has a nose for something, you mean that they have a natural ability to find it or recognize it.

He had a nose for trouble and a brilliant tactical mind...

Gergen had a great sense of news, a good nose for trends, and a wide range of contacts.

11) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you say that someone or something gets up your nose, you mean that they annoy you. [BRIT, INFORMAL]

He's just getting up my nose so much at the moment.

12) PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n (disapproval) If you say that someone looks down their nose at something or someone, you mean that they believe they are superior to that person or thing and treat them with disrespect.

I don't look down my nose at comedy...

They rather looked down their noses at the poor old French and especially the poor old Italians.

13) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for n (emphasis) If you say that you paid through the nose for something, you are emphasizing that you had to pay what you consider too high a price for it. [INFORMAL]

We don't like paying through the nose for our wine when eating out.

14) PHRASE: V and N inflect, PHR n (disapproval) If someone pokes their nose into something or sticks their nose into something, they try to interfere with it even though it does not concern them. [INFORMAL]

We don't like strangers who poke their noses into our affairs...

Why did you have to stick your nose in?

Syn:

meddle

15) PHRASE: V and N inflect, PHR n To rub someone's nose in something that they do not want to think about, such as a failing or a mistake they have made, means to remind them repeatedly about it. [INFORMAL]

His enemies will attempt to rub his nose in past policy statements.

16) PHRASE: V inflects (disapproval) If you say that someone is cutting off their nose to spite their face, you mean they do something that they think will hurt someone, without realizing or caring that it will hurt themselves as well.

There is evidence that the industry's greed means that it is cutting off its nose to spite its face.

17) PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v If vehicles are nose to tail, the front of one vehicle is close behind the back of another. [mainly BRIT]

...a line of about twenty fast-moving trucks driving nose to tail.

(in AM, use bumper-to-bumper)

18) PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n If you thumb your nose at someone, you behave in a way that shows that you do not care what they think.

He has always thumbed his nose at the media.

19) PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n If you turn up your nose at something, you reject it because you think that it is not good enough for you.

I'm not in a financial position to turn up my nose at several hundred thousand pounds.

20) PHRASE: N inflects If you do something under someone's nose, you do it right in front of them, without trying to hide it from them.

We've been married 25 years and this carrying on under my nose was the last straw.

21) to put someone's nose out of joint → see joint

Phrasal Verbs:

- nose around