Word.ws English Dictionary

look past the end of one's nose

look past the end of one's nose is the alternative form of see past the end of one's nose.

Meaning of see past the end of one's nose

Verb

see past the end of one's nose (third-person singular simple present sees past the end of one's nose, present participle seeing past the end of one's nose, simple past saw past the end of one's nose, past participle seen past the end of one's nose)

  1. (idiomatic) To have insight into underlying facts or consequences; to possess common sense or a vision for the future.
    • “If you could find a curator somewhere—I admit this is difficult—who can see beyond the end of his nose, he would be glad to be a true innovator and get out of the international rut.”1964 September 13, John Canaday, “Hello Sr. Brest”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Dec 2015

Forms of look past the end of one's nose

third-person singular presentlooks past the end of one's nose
present participlelooking past the end of one's nose
past participlelooked past the end of one's nose
pastlooked past the end of one's nose

Questions about look past the end of one's nose

What is look past the end of one's nose the alternative form of?
Look past the end of one's nose is the alternative form of see past the end of one's nose.

Words near look past the end of one's nose in the dictionary

  1. look out for number one
  2. look out for someone
  3. look over
  4. look over one's shoulder
  5. look past
  6. look past the end of one's nose
  7. look past the tip of one's nose
  8. look right through
  9. look round
  10. look sharp
  11. look shy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look past the end of one's nose (page history and authors); see past the end of 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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