Definitions

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

  • noun A beak of a bird.
  • noun A nose or snout.
  • noun A projecting part, especially a nib.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An abbreviation of Nebraska.
  • noun The bill or beak of a bird; also, the snout or muzzle of a beast.
  • noun The nose: as, a lang neb; a sharp neb.
  • noun The face.
  • noun The tip end of anything; a sharp point: as, the neb of a lancet or knife. See nib.
  • noun The nib of a pen. See nib.

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

  • noun The nose; the snout; the mouth; the beak of a bird; a nib, as of a pen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun now dialectal A bird's beak or bill.
  • noun obsolete A person's mouth.
  • noun now dialectal A person's nose.
  • noun now dialectal The nose or snout of an animal, now especially of a fish.
  • noun now dialectal A projecting extremity; a point or sharp projection.
  • noun now dialectal A nib, as of a pen.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun horny projecting mouth of a bird
  • noun a long projecting or anterior elongation of an animal's head; especially the nose

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English nebb ("beak, nose, face"), from Proto-Germanic. Cognate with Danish næb, Dutch neb, German Schnabel, Old Norse nef, Swedish näbb, Swedish regional näv.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Scots - nose.

    December 6, 2007

  • "'This is Angus Walter Edwin Murray Carmichael,' Jamie answered for him, ruffling the silky blond hair. 'Maggie's eldest son, and most commonly known as Wally.'

    'We call him Snot-rag,' a small red-haired girl standing by my knee informed me. ''Cause his neb is always clotted wi' gook.'"

    —Diana Gabaldon, Voyager (NY: Dell, 1994), 567

    January 17, 2010

  • In Pittsburgh, the slang term for someone who is nosey is "nebby" or a "neb-nose."

    January 17, 2010