Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of the human face or the forward part of the head of other vertebrates that contains the nostrils and organs of smell and forms the beginning of the respiratory tract.
  • noun The sense of smell.
  • noun The ability to detect, sense, or discover as if by smell.
  • noun The characteristic smell of a wine or liqueur; bouquet.
  • noun Informal The nose considered as a symbol of prying.
  • noun Something, such as the forward end of an aircraft, rocket, or submarine, that resembles a nose in shape or position.
  • noun A very short distance or narrow margin.
  • intransitive verb To find out by or as if by smell.
  • intransitive verb To touch with the nose; nuzzle.
  • intransitive verb To move, push, or make with or as if with the nose.
  • intransitive verb To advance the forward part of cautiously.
  • intransitive verb To smell or sniff.
  • intransitive verb Informal To search or inquire meddlesomely; snoop or pry.
  • intransitive verb To advance with caution.
  • idiom (down (one's) nose) With disapproval, contempt, or arrogance.
  • idiom (on the nose) Exactly; precisely.
  • idiom (under (someone's) nose) In plain view.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Middle English form of noise.
  • noun The special organ of the sense of smell, formed by modifications of certain bones and fleshy parts of the face, its cavities, or fossæ, freely communicable with the cavities of the mouth and lungs, and hence also concerned in respiration, the utterance of words or vocal sounds, and taste.
  • noun Hence The sense of smell; the faculty of smelling, or the exercise of that faculty; scent; olfaction.
  • noun Something supposed to resemble a nose.
  • noun An informer.
  • In forestry, to round off the end of (a log) in order to make it drag or slip more easily. Also called snipe.
  • noun In golf, the extreme end of a club opposite the neck or heel.
  • To smell; scent.
  • To face; oppose to the face.
  • To utter in a nasal manner; twang through the nose.
  • To touch, feel, or examine with the nose; toss or rub with the nose.
  • To smell; sniff.
  • To pry curiously or in a meddlesome way.
  • In coal-mining. See the quotation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To push or move with the nose or front forward.
  • intransitive verb To smell; to sniff; to scent.
  • intransitive verb To pry officiously into what does not concern one; to nose around.
  • transitive verb To smell; to scent; hence, to track, or trace out.
  • transitive verb To touch with the nose; to push the nose into or against; hence, to interfere with; to treat insolently.
  • transitive verb rare To utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang.
  • transitive verb To confront; be closely face to face or opposite to; meet.
  • transitive verb To furnish with a nose.
  • transitive verb To examine with the nose or sense of smell.
  • transitive verb To make by advancing the nose or front end;
  • transitive verb (Racing Slang) to beat by (the length of) a nose.
  • noun (Anat.) The prominent part of the face or anterior extremity of the head containing the nostrils and olfactory cavities; the olfactory organ. See Nostril, and Olfactory organ under Olfactory.
  • noun The power of smelling; hence, scent.
  • noun A projecting end or beak at the front of an object; a snout; a nozzle; a spout
  • noun (Carp.) a bit similar to a gouge bit, but having a cutting edge on one side of its boring end.
  • noun (Mach.) a frontal hammer.
  • noun (Glass Making) a small opening in a furnace, before which a globe of crown glass is held and kept soft at the beginning of the flattening process.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English nosu; see nas- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-Germanic *nusō (compare West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Norwegian nos ‘snout’), variant of *nasō (cf. Low German Nees, German Nase, Norwegian nese ‘nose’), old dual from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s- ~ *nh₂es- ‘nose, nostril’ (compare Latin nāris ‘nostril’, nāsus ‘nose’, Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос (nos), Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā) ‘nostrils’).

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Examples

  • I stuck my nose all the way down in there, and there was nothing other than *crinkled nose*.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • I stuck my nose all the way down in there, and there was nothing other than *crinkled nose*.

    WBW no. 9 - Think Pink! 2005

  • Fracture of nasal bones -- Deformities of nose: _Saddle nose_; _Partial and complete destruction of nose_; _Restoration of nose_;

    Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. Alexander Miles 1893

  • The deformity sometimes consists in a lateral deviation of the nose, but more frequently in flattening of the bridge -- _traumatic saddle nose_.

    Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. Alexander Miles 1893

  • In drenching, swallowing may be hastened by pouring into the nose of the horse, while the head is high, a few teaspoonfuls of clean water, but _drenches must never be given through the nose_.

    Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Charles B. Michener 1877

  • The one the right side of my nose from the Mohs surgery that reshaped my nose is a symbol of life's fragility every time I look in the mirror.

    Lea Lane: Scars of a Life Lea Lane 2010

  • The officer in charge of this one knows as well as I do that a red nose is shorthand for a drunk.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2004

  • The officer in charge of this one knows as well as I do that a red nose is shorthand for a drunk.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2004

  • Right out of the bottle, the nose is a little taut and doesn't offer much, but with a little coaxing, bright, fresh aromas of juicy pear citrus and sweet basil emerge.

    Long Island Dines 2009

  • At first, the nose is a bit austere, but as it warmed just a bit out of the fridge classic aromas of rose petals reach up out of the glass, along with gingery spice and sweet tropical fruit notes.

    The New York Cork Report: 2009

Comments

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  • a substitute for any swear word (ex. you nosing noser, kiss my nose, etc.)

    November 12, 2008

  • Citation on sussurantly.

    June 19, 2009

  • JM wonders if a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?

    August 13, 2011

  • The parson's, pope's, and sultan's nose -

    Upon the pavonine pygostyle repose.

    December 27, 2011