Word.ws English Dictionary

leading by the nose

leading by the nose is the present participle and gerund of lead by the nose.

Meaning of lead by the nose

Verb

lead by the nose (third-person singular simple present leads by the nose, present participle leading by the nose, simple past and past participle led by the nose)

  1. (figuratively, idiomatic) To cause to follow blindly.
    • let him choose well his referendaries , for else he may be led by the nose1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Suitors”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  2. (figuratively, idiomatic) To lead by example and painstaking explanation, as one might do for remedial teaching.
    • We had to lead some users by the nose because they couldn't understand even the simplest instructions.

Questions about leading by the nose

What is leading by the nose the present participle and gerund of?
Leading by the nose is the present participle and gerund of lead by the nose.

Words near leading by the nose in the dictionary

  1. leadiness
  2. leading
  3. leading astray
  4. leading axle
  5. leading axles
  6. leading by the nose
  7. leading case
  8. leading cases
  9. leading diagonal
  10. leading diagonals
  11. leading edge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leading by the nose (page history and authors); lead by the 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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