nose

Word Origin & History

Old English nosu, from Proto-Germanic *nusus (cf. Old Norse nös, Old Frisian nose, Dutch neus, Old High German nasa, German Nase), from PIE *nas- "nose" (cf. Sanskrit nasa, Old Persian naham, Old Church Slavonic nasu, Lithuanian nosis, Latin nasus "nose"). Used of any prominent or projecting part from 1530s. (nose cone in the space rocket sense is from 1949). Used to indicate "something obvious" from 1590s. Meaning "odor, scent" is from 1894.

Pay through the nose (1670s) seems to suggest "bleed." Many extended meanings are from the horse-racing sense of "length of a horse's nose," as a measure of distance between two finishers (1908). To turn up one's nose "show disdain" is from 1818 (earlier hold up one's nose, 1570s); similar notion in look down one's nose (1921). To say something is under (one's) nose "in plain view" is from 1540s.

Example Sentences for nose

I'm sure that when I wrote these lines, fortune had for a moment tweaked me by the nose.

She merely turned her head and rubbed his knee with her nose.

The teacher sunk into a chair, and put his spectacles on his nose.

You ought to know; you had to pay through the nose for shuttin' his mouth.

You're right, though,' says he, and with that he tries to put a twister on Diablo's nose.

And, to make it all the better, it was cold enough to nip one's nose short off!

I am lean and bony and I've got a beak where I should have a nose.

His royal blood was streaming from his nose in great abundance.

He nickered a soft welcome and laid his nose on her shoulder.

Even the hard, drawn lines about his mouth and nose had disappeared.

nose

seeks

smell

smelled

smelling

smells

smelt

sniff

sniffing

nose

More words related to nose