Word.ws English Dictionary

hold one's nose

hold one's nose verb: to pinch one's nostrils closed with one's fingers, usually to block out an unpleasant smell.

Verb

hold one's nose (third-person singular simple present holds one's nose, present participle holding one's nose, simple past and past participle held one's nose)

  1. To pinch one's nostrils closed with one's fingers, usually to block out an unpleasant smell.
  2. (figuratively) To reluctantly overcome one's revulsion.
    • To the public, AIG symbolized everything that had gone wrong with the system […] But like the president, I understood that we had to hold our noses and save the company in order to protect the frail financial system.2010, Hank Paulson, On The Brink

Forms of hold one's nose

third-person singular presentholds one's nose
present participleholding one's nose
past participleheld one's nose
pastheld one's nose

Questions about hold one's nose

What does hold one's nose mean?
Hold one's nose means to pinch one's nostrils closed with one's fingers, usually to block out an unpleasant smell.
What part of speech is hold one's nose?
Hold one's nose is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold one's nose?
The past tense of hold one's nose is held one's nose.

Words near hold one's nose in the dictionary

  1. hold one's horses
  2. hold one's jaw
  3. hold one's liquor
  4. hold one's mouth right
  5. hold one's nerve
  6. hold one's nose
  7. hold one's nose up
  8. hold one's own
  9. hold one's peace
  10. hold one's pee
  11. hold one's piece

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold one's nose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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