Word.ws English Dictionary

powder one's nose

powder one's nose verb: to visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc.

Verb

powder one's nose (third-person singular simple present powders one's nose, present participle powdering one's nose, simple past and past participle powdered one's nose)

  1. (euphemistic, typically of women) To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc.
    • I'll be right back. I just have to powder my nose.
    • C'mon girls; let's go powder our noses.
  2. (slang) To snort cocaine or other types of drugs through one's nose.
    • The cokehead couldn't go more than a couple hours without powdering his nose.
    • Well I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman)

Forms of powder one's nose

third-person singular presentpowders one's nose
present participlepowdering one's nose
past participlepowdered one's nose
pastpowdered one's nose

Origin of powder one's nose

From the use of a lavatory as a place to apply makeup.

Questions about powder one's nose

What does powder one's nose mean?
Powder one's nose means to visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc.
What part of speech is powder one's nose?
Powder one's nose is a verb.
What is the past tense of powder one's nose?
The past tense of powder one's nose is powdered one's nose.

Words near powder one's nose in the dictionary

  1. powder mines
  2. powder monkey
  3. powder monkeys
  4. powder of algaroth
  5. powder of sympathy
  6. powder one's nose
  7. powder pink
  8. powder pinks
  9. powder puff
  10. powder puffs
  11. Powder River

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: powder 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-powder one's nose.wav.

Cite this entry: “powder one's nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/powder_one%27s_nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.