pay through the nose
UK/ˌpeɪ θɹuː ðə ˈnəʊz/US/ˌpeɪ θɹu ðə ˈnoʊz/
pay through the nose verb: to pay an exorbitant or excessive amount, either in money or in some other manner.
Verb
pay through the nose (third-person singular simple present pays through the nose, present participle paying through the nose, simple past and past participle paid through the nose)
- To pay an exorbitant or excessive amount, either in money or in some other manner.
- Observe here the happy estate of our Ancestors under Monarchy, who, if they gained but this advantage […] of receiving a few good Grants, and enjoying a pittance of Freedom, once in 4 or 5 ages when their King was too young to play Rex, and there hapned a wise and honest Protector; yet were sure to...1650, G[eorge] W[alker], Anglo-tyrannus, or The Idea of a Norman Monarch, Represented in the Paralell Reignes of Henrie the Third and Charles Kings of England, […], London: […] George Thompson […]...
- But vvhen they came to ſeek for Match, and Bullet, and Povvder, there vvas none to be had. The Fanaticks had bought it all up, and made them pay for it moſt unconſcionably, and through the noſe.1672, [Andrew Marvell], The Rehearsal Transpros’d: Or, Animadversions upon a Late Book, Entituled, A Preface, Shewing what Grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery, London: [s.n.], →OCLC...
pay through the nose meaning in Urdu
pay through the nose in Urdu
- بہت بھاری قیمت دینا
Examples of pay through the nose in a sentence
- [F]armers of the revenue vvere admitted, vvho, far from being gratified for their preſence, as they are in their ovvn aſſemblies, vvere obliged to pay through the noſe for their reception.1751, [Alain-René Lesage], “Gil Blas Acquires the Theatrical Taste, Abandons Himself to the Pleasures of a Comic Life, with which however...
- "You'll pay through the nose for this, you scoundrel," Sexton whimpered.1918, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, chapter XXXVI, in The Valley of the Giants, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 358:
- [T]hat fellow would milk the settlements somehow, and make his family pay through the nose to keep him out of bankruptcy or perhaps even gaol!1920, John Galsworthy, “Where Forsytes Fear to Tread”, in In Chancery (The Forsyte Saga; 2), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part II...
Forms of pay through the nose
| third-person singular present | pays through the nose |
|---|---|
| present participle | paying through the nose |
| past participle | paid through the nose |
| past | paid through the nose |
Origin of pay through the nose
Origin uncertain; according to the American etymologist and linguist Anatoly Liberman (born 1937), probably a nautical term drawing an analogy between paying a large sum of money and paying out an anchor’s cable or chain through the hawseholes at the bow (metaphorically the “nose”) of a ship. He is unconvinced of other explanations such as the following: * The term is said to derive from the story of the Norse god Odin levying a tax on the nose of every Swede. However, Liberman is of the view that it is unclear why a god would require money. * Alternatively, the term is said to be from Old Norse nef-gildi (“poll tax payable to the king”, literally “nose-tax”), nose being a synecdoche referring to a person, because the Irish were required to pay such a tax to the Vikings who conquered them (795–1169 C.E.). Liberman points out that the English term is only attested centuries after this period.
Words that rhyme with pay through the nose
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- interpose
- 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
Questions about pay through the nose
- What does pay through the nose mean?
- Pay through the nose means to pay an exorbitant or excessive amount, either in money or in some other manner.
- What is pay through the nose in Urdu?
- Pay through the nose in Urdu is بہت بھاری قیمت دینا. See Pay through the nose meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use pay through the nose in a sentence?
- [F]armers of the revenue vvere admitted, vvho, far from being gratified for their preſence, as they are in their ovvn aſſemblies, vvere obliged to pay through the noſe for their reception.
- What part of speech is pay through the nose?
- Pay through the nose is a verb.
- How do you pronounce pay through the nose?
- Pay through the nose is pronounced /ˌpeɪ θɹuː ðə ˈnəʊz/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of pay through the nose?
- The past tense of pay through the nose is paid through the nose.
Words near pay through the nose in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pay through the nose (page history and authors); pay through the nose (Urdu 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-au-pay through the nose.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pay through the nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pay_through_the_nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.