nosegay
Syllables: nose·gayUK/ˈnəʊzɡeɪ//ˈnoʊzˌɡeɪ/
nosegay noun: a small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs tied in a bundle, often presented as a gift; nosegays were originally intended to be put to the nose for the pleasant sensation or to mask unpleasant odours.
Noun
nosegay (plural nosegays)
- A small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs tied in a bundle, often presented as a gift; nosegays were originally intended to be put to the nose for the pleasant sensation or to mask unpleasant odours.
- [N]o more is Pierce Pennileſſe to be cald the Devils Orator for making a Supplication to the Devill, than hee is to bee helde for a Rhethoritian for ſetting foorth Gabrielis Scurvei Rhetor, wherein hee thought to have knockt out the braines of poore Tullies Orator, but in veritie did nothing elſe...1592, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Here Beginneth the First Epistle and First Booke of Orator Gabriell to the Catilinaries or Philippicks”, in Strange Newes, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters and a Convoy of...
- Mr. [John] White joins with the reſt of his fellow-voyagers, in vindicating the characters of the Portugueſe ladies from the indiſcriminate cenſure which is caſt on them in Dr. Hawkſworth's account of Captain [James] Cook's firſt voyage: we muſt therefore conclude, that Dr. [Daniel] Solander, and...1791 March, “Art. XV. Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, with Sixty-five Plates of Non-descript Animals, Birds, Lizards, Serpents, Curious Cones of Trees, and Other Natural Productions. By John...
- Synonyms:
- posy
- An aroma, a scent.
- The 80-year-old Government Opium and Alkaloid Works in Neemuch smells better than it looks. The turfy-chocolaty nosegay of raw opium wafts from hundreds of milk cans.2007 September 11, Donald G[erald] McNeil, Jr., “In India, a quest to ease the pain of the dying”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2018
nosegay meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam
nosegay in Urdu
- چھوٹا سا گل دستہ, پھولوں کا گچھا
nosegay in Bengali
- পুষ্পস্তবক, ছোট তোড়া
nosegay in Telugu
- small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs
- మంజరి mañjari, పూగుత్తి pūgutti
nosegay in Malayalam
- bouquet, posy, bunch
- ചെണ്ട്, പൂച്ചെണ്ട്, പൂക്കുല, പൊടിപ്പ്, പൊടുപ്പ്, തളിർക്കുല
More languagesFewer languages
- nosegay in Kannada
- ಕಿರು ಹೂಗೊಂಚಲು
- nosegay in Thai
- กำบัง gam-bang
- nosegay in Myanmar
- ပန်းချည် pan:hkyany
Examples of nosegay in a sentence
- I had lingered behind to gather a nosegay of the small blue flowers that marked the day's march.1913 February, Elizabeth [Kimball] Kendall, “The Chien-Ch’ang”, in A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a Trip across West China and...
- At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...
- Tacked to Miss Trixie's desk was a large sign that said miss trixie with an old-fashioned nosegay drawn in crayon in one corner.1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 5, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing)...
Synonyms of nosegay
Forms of nosegay
| plural | nosegays |
|---|
Origin of nosegay
From Late Middle English nōsegai (?), from nōse (“nose”) (from Old English nosu, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nas- (“nose”)) + gai (“a bright or gay object; an ornament”) (from Old French gai (“cheerful, gay, happy”)); equivalent to nose + gay.
Words formed from nosegay
Questions about nosegay
- What does nosegay mean?
- Nosegay means a small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs tied in a bundle, often presented as a gift; nosegays were originally intended to be put to the nose for the pleasant sensation or to mask unpleasant odours.
- What is nosegay in Urdu?
- Nosegay in Urdu is چھوٹا سا گل دستہ, پھولوں کا گچھا. See Nosegay meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use nosegay in a sentence?
- I had lingered behind to gather a nosegay of the small blue flowers that marked the day's march.
- What part of speech is nosegay?
- Nosegay is a noun.
- How do you pronounce nosegay?
- Nosegay is pronounced /ˈnəʊzɡeɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nosegay?
- The plural of nosegay is nosegays.
Words near nosegay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nosegay (page history and authors); nosegay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nosegay (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nosegay (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); nosegay (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: En-us-nosegay.flac.
Cite this entry: “nosegay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nosegay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.