nose
[nəʊ̯z]
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British[nəwz]
nose noun: a protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.
Noun
nose (plural noses)
- A protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.
- She had a small nose between two sparkling blue eyes.
- The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.[…].1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- A snout, the nose of an animal.
- The tip of an object.
- the nose of a tea-kettle, a bellows, or a fighter plane
- We submerged very slowly and without headway more than sufficient to keep her nose in the right direction, and as we went down, I saw outlined ahead of us the black opening in the great cliff.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
- The bulge on the side of a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, that fits into the hole of its adjacent piece.
- Synonyms:
- tab
- The length of a horse’s nose, used to indicate the distance between horses at the finish of a race, or any very close race.
- Red Rum only won by a nose.
- A perfumer.
- Jacques Polge, Chanel's top “nose” since 1978, made the decision when developers started trying to buy up land around Grasse, where the Muls cultivate three hectares of the precious plant.2014 March 4, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- The sense of smell.
- We are not offended with […] a dog for a better nose than his master.c. 1700, Jeremy Collier, Of Envy
- Bouquet, the smell of something, especially wine.
- The skill in recognising bouquet.
- It is essential that a winetaster develops a good nose.
- Skill at finding information.
- A successful tabloid reporter has a nose for gossip.
- I got to know one or two other girls who wrote, and they told me that my sort of stuff would be all right when I got into the peerage or became a leading lady, but if I wanted to live meanwhile it was absolutely necessary to cultivate a "news-nose".1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- The action of nosing, in the sense to snoop
- They had a nose around the abandoned property.
- A downward projection from a cornice.
- Synonyms:
- drip
- An informer.
- […] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; […]1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60
- Synonyms:
- nark
Verb
nose (third-person singular simple present noses, present participle nosing, simple past and past participle nosed)
- To move cautiously by advancing its front end.
- The ship nosed through the minefield.
- Promontory's "last spike" ceremony was so significant to the USA's history that it is still regularly re-enacted today, using replica locomotives that nose up to each other just as the originals did.2025 November 12, Tony Streeter, “All around the world”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 42
- To snoop.
- She was nosing around other people’s business.
- To detect by smell or as if by smell.
- […] if you finde him not this moneth, you ſhall noſe him as you go vp the ſtaires into the Lobby.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Dogs hurried out to nose Edmund[.]1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 18
- To push with one's nose; to nuzzle.
- [L]ambs are glad / Nosing the mother's udder, and the bird / Makes his heart voice among the blaze of flowers: […]1868, Alfred Tennyson, “Lucretius”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 211
- To defeat (as in a race or other contest) by a narrow margin; sometimes with out.
- To utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang.
- to nose a prayer
- It makes far better musick when you nose Sternold's, or Wisdom's meeter.c. 1635, William Cartwright, The Ordinary
- To furnish with a nose.
- to nose a stair tread
- To confront; be closely face to face or opposite to.
- To dive down in a steep angle; to nosedive
- To travel with the nose of the plane/ship aimed in a particular direction.
- The plane is nosing up!
- We have to get it nosing down.
nose meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
nose in Hindi
- protuberance on the face
- नाक nāk, नासिका nāsikā
nose in Tamil
- protuberance on the face
- மூக்கு mūkku
nose in Marathi
- protuberance on the face
- नाक nāk, नासिका nāsikā
nose in Urdu
- protuberance on the face
- ناک nāk
More languagesFewer languages
- nose in Bengali
- নাক nak
- nose in Telugu
- ముక్కు mukku
- nose in Malayalam
- മൂക്ക് mūkkŭ
- nose in Kannada
- ಮೂಗು mūgu, ನಾಸಿಕ nāsika
- nose in Punjabi
- ਨੱਕ nakka, نَکّ nakk
- nose in Gujarati
- નાક nāk
- nose in Odia
- ନାକ nāka
- nose in Sanskrit
- नस् nas, नासिका nāsikā, नासा nāsā
- nose in Sinhala
- නහය nahaya
- nose in Assamese
- নাক nak
- nose in Nepali
- नाक nāk
- nose in Pashto
- پزه pozá, پوزه pozá
- nose in Tagalog
- ilong
- nose in Arabic
- أَنْف ʔanf, خَشَم ḵašam, مناخير manaḵīr, خشم ḵešim
- nose in Malay
- hidung
- nose in Indonesian
- hidung
- nose in Persian
- بِینِی bīnī, بینی bini, دَماغ damâġ, نُس nos
- nose in Thai
- จมูก jà-mùuk, นัตถุ์ nát, นาสิก naa-sìk, ดัง dang
- nose in Vietnamese
- mũi
- nose in Myanmar
- နှာခေါင်း hnahkaung:
- Sindhi
- نڪ naku
- Dhivehi
- ނޭފަތް nēfat̊
Examples of nose in a sentence
- Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:
- Real connoisseurs know that to nose and taste properly you have to add still water to your tulip-shaped glass so that the alcohol doesn't overwhelm you.2002 October 20, Bob Morris, “Connoisseurship Runneth Over”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of nose
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of nose
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | noses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | noses |
| present participle | nosing |
| past participle | nosed |
| past | nosed |
Origin of nose
From Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-West Germanic *nosu, variant of *nasō, old dual from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s- ~ *nh₂es- (“nose, nostril”). See also Saterland Frisian Noose, West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Swedish nos, Norwegian nos (“snout”), Low German Nääs, German Nase, Swedish näsa, Norwegian nese, Danish næse (“nose”); also Latin nāris (“nostril”), nāsus (“nose”), Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос (nos), Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā, “nostrils”).
Words formed from nose
- aquiline nose
- Australasian pig-nose turtle
- banana-nose
- banana nose
- bignose
- bishop's nose
- blacknose
- bloodied nose
- blood nose
- bloody nose
- blow one's nose
- bluenose
- blue-nosed
- bluntnose
- bottlenose
- bottle-nose
- bottle-nose dolphin
- brownnose
- bullet-nose
- bullnose
- bull's nose
- button nose
- camel's nose
- cherry nose
- clown nose
- coke nose
- conenose
- copper nose
- cownose
- cut off one's nose to spite one's face
- dicknose
- dog-nose
- dog's nose
- Dudley nose
- ear, nose and throat
- empty nose syndrome
- e-nose
- flatnose
- follow one's nose
- fucknose
- get up someone's nose
- give someone a bloody nose
- hard-nose
- hard nose
- have someone's nose wide open
- hawknose
- hawk-nose
- hawk nose
- hognose
- hold one's nose
- hold one's nose up
- hooknose
- in front of one's nose
- I've got your nose
- Jewish nose
- Jew nose
- Jew's nose
- Jolly Nose
- keep one's nose clean
- largenose
Phrases with nose
- nose ape
- nose art
- nose bag
- nose bit
- nose cap
- nose job
- nose key
- nose out
- nose pad
- nose peg
- pug nose
- ski nose
151 more phrasesFewer phrases
- blue nose
- by a nose
- nose apes
- nose bags
- nose beer
- nose bits
- nose bonk
- nose caps
- nose cone
- nose deaf
- nose dive
- nose gear
- nose goes
- nose hair
- nose jobs
- nose keys
- nose kiss
- nose line
- nose over
- nose pads
- nose pegs
- nose poke
- nose ring
- nose stud
- nose test
- snub nose
- soft nose
- nose about
- nose beard
- nose beers
- nose bleed
- nose blind
- nose bonks
- nose candy
- nose cones
- nose count
- nose dives
- nose flute
- nose gears
- nose grind
- nose guard
- nose hairs
- nose lines
- nose paint
- nose piece
- nose poked
- nose pokes
- nose putty
- nose rings
- nose slide
- nose strip
- nose tests
- Roman nose
- rummy nose
- runny nose
- nigger nose
- nose around
- nose beards
- nose bleeds
- nose bonked
- nose bridge
- nose butter
- nose counts
- nose flutes
- nose grinds
- nose guards
- nose kisses
- nose monkey
- nose of wax
- nose pieces
- nose poking
- nose powder
- nose slides
- nose strips
- nose tackle
- nose weight
- pope's nose
- saddle nose
- nose bonking
- nose bridges
- nose butters
- nose glasses
- nose leather
- nose monkeys
- nose putties
- nose tackles
- nose to tail
- nose trimmer
- nose weights
- nose wheelie
- nose whistle
- Pierced Nose
- Red Nose Day
- nose buttered
- nose leathers
- nose piercing
- nose to tails
- nose trimmers
- nose wheelies
- nose whistles
- parson's nose
- ski jump nose
- ski ramp nose
- ski-jump nose
- ski-ramp nose
- sultan's nose
- won by a nose
- nose blindness
- nose buttering
- nose piercings
- ski slope nose
- ski-slope nose
- wins by a nose
- blew one's nose
- held one's nose
- led by the nose
- nose in the air
- pick one's nose
- blown one's nose
- blows one's nose
- by a nose length
- holds one's nose
- lead by the nose
- picks one's nose
- thumb one's nose
- leads by the nose
- picked one's nose
- thumbs one's nose
- winning by a nose
- blowing one's nose
- follows one's nose
- held one's nose up
- holding one's nose
- picking one's nose
- powders one's nose
- ring in one's nose
- socked on the nose
- thumbed one's nose
- turn one's nose up
- turn up one's nose
- followed one's nose
- holds one's nose up
- leading by the nose
- powdered one's nose
- thumbing one's nose
- turns one's nose up
- turns up one's nose
- white nose syndrome
- wipe someone's nose
- following one's nose
- powdering one's nose
Words that rhyme with nose
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- propose
- gloze
- oppose
- disclose
- foreclose
- prose
- snows
- turn up one's nose
- unclose
- adipose
- appose
- arose
- chose
- counterpose
- croze
- decompose
- doze
- enclose
- froze
- hoes
- knows
- adoze
- apollos
- beaus
- beprose
- blows
- bose
- bros
- châteaux
- cloze
- coze
- crows
- does
- dos
- doughs
- fallows
- fellows
- flows
- foes
- follows
- foredispose
- frows
- glows
- goes
- grows
- hard-nose
- hollows
- joes
Questions about nose
- What does nose mean?
- Nose means a protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.
- What is nose in Hindi?
- Nose in Hindi is नाक (nāk), नासिका (nāsikā). See Nose meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use nose in a sentence?
- Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.
- What part of speech is nose?
- Nose can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce nose?
- Nose is pronounced [nəʊ̯z] (UK).
- What is the plural of nose?
- The plural of nose is noses.
Words near nose in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-nose.wav, en-us-nose.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.