on the nose

on the nose prepositional phrase: exact; precise; appropriate.

Prepositional phrase

(idiomatic) Exact; precise; appropriate.
- His estimate that they would consume 23 boxes was on the nose.
- His choice of decor was on the nose, considering the theme of the party.
Synonyms:

on the button, on the dot
(idiomatic) Unimaginative; overliteral; lacking nuance; unsophisticated.
- Wearing that floral dress to a garden party was a little on the nose, wouldn't you say?
- Susan: Barbara, I really like these red Christmas bulbs.
  Barbara: You think next year we should do the whole Christmas tree in them?
  Susan: Don't you think that's a bit on the nose?1974, Joseph Walsh, California Split
Synonyms:

heavy-handed

Antonyms:

nuanced, subtle
(Australia, figuratively, often, slang) Smelly; malodorous.
- That bucket of raw prawns you left in the sun is a bit on the nose.
- Now the process has been reversed; it is doubtful if there has ever been a time when politicians and politics have been more on the nose than the period of the first Fraser government, and this is not only unfunny, but unhealthy.1977, Mungo MacCallum, Mungo's Canberra, University of Queensland Press, →ISBN, page 198
(slang) Being a bet on a horse to finish first.
- It was three o'clock. They were running the third race at Santa Anita and he had ten bucks on the nose.1941 February, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Fun in an Artist’s Studio”, in Esquire
- I once knew a fag dip into the till—not the whole two thousand at once on the nose win or Sing Sing.[…]1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 128
(obsolete, slang) On the lookout.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, nose.

on the nose meaning in Malayalam

on the nose in Malayalam

precisely, exactly, sharp: നേരേ, കൃത്യം, സൂക്ഷ്മമായി, ശരിയായി, തിട്ടമായി, അതിസൂക്ഷ്മമായി

Examples of on the nose in a sentence

Let's see . . . the child population is just about average for the city, on the nose.1961, Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New York: Random House, page 10:
In the last three or four years of the series, with the active and very enthusiastic support of the producers and writers, we did go much more on the nose with political issues.1995 August 22, Donna Minkowitz, quoting Patrick Stewart, “A New Enterprise”, in The Advocate, number 687/688, →ISSN, page 76:
They were just much more on the nose, in terms of what someone who was sexually voracious would look like.1997 September, Jill Daniel, quoting Sharon Lawrence, “The Metamorph”, in Orange Coast, →ISSN, page 37:
No one had spoken to me like this before; she was bang on the nose.2009, Rhona Cameron, The Naked Drinking Club, Random House, →ISBN, page 155:

Synonyms of on the nose

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of on the nose

Questions about on the nose

What does on the nose mean?: On the nose means exact; precise; appropriate.
What is on the nose in Malayalam?: On the nose in Malayalam is നേരേ, കൃത്യം, സൂക്ഷ്മമായി. See On the nose meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use on the nose in a sentence?: Let's see . . . the child population is just about average for the city, on the nose.
What part of speech is on the nose?: On the nose is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the nose in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the nose (page history and authors); on the nose (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-on the nose.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.