Word.ws English Dictionary

picking one's nose

picking one's nose is the present participle and gerund of pick one's nose.

Meaning of pick one's nose

Verb

pick one's nose (third-person singular simple present picks one's nose, present participle picking one's nose, simple past and past participle picked one's nose)

  1. (idiomatic) To insert a finger or other object into one's nostril to remove obstructions, especially dried mucus.
    • You can pick your friends; you can pick your nose; but you can't pick your friends' noses.

Questions about picking one's nose

What is picking one's nose the present participle and gerund of?
Picking one's nose is the present participle and gerund of pick one's nose.

Words near picking one's nose in the dictionary

  1. picking it up
  2. picking oakum
  3. picking off
  4. picking on
  5. picking one's battles
  6. picking one's nose
  7. picking one's way
  8. picking oneself up off the floor
  9. picking out
  10. picking out of a hat
  11. picking over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: picking one's nose (page history and authors); pick 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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Cite this entry: “picking one's nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/picking_one%27s_nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.