Word.ws English Dictionary

rub someone's nose in

rub someone's nose in verb: to confront someone with (facts or evidence) that they find unpleasant in order to make them suffer.

Verb

rub someone's nose in (third-person singular simple present rubs someone's nose in, present participle rubbing someone's nose in, simple past and past participle rubbed someone's nose in)

  1. To confront someone with (facts or evidence) that they find unpleasant in order to make them suffer.
    • I want him to rub his nose in the issue. I want a local judgement about a local or specific event, supposed to have happened in a particular region of time and space.2005, Simon Blackburn, Truth: A Guide, →ISBN
    • This weekend you're here to rub his face in one failure, his not securing a Beaumaris to marry one of his stepdaughters, while I rub his nose in the ultimate failure for any Beaumaris, true or not, by informing him he needs to pack his bags and get...the fuck...out.2011, Kristen Ashley, Penmort Castle, →ISBN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rub, nose, in.

Forms of rub someone's nose in

third-person singular presentrubs someone's nose in
present participlerubbing someone's nose in
past participlerubbed someone's nose in
pastrubbed someone's nose in

Origin of rub someone's nose in

From the technique of rubbing a pet's nose in the feces or urine when it makes a mess where it should not.

Questions about rub someone's nose in

What does rub someone's nose in mean?
Rub someone's nose in means to confront someone with (facts or evidence) that they find unpleasant in order to make them suffer.
What part of speech is rub someone's nose in?
Rub someone's nose in is a verb.
What is the past tense of rub someone's nose in?
The past tense of rub someone's nose in is rubbed someone's nose in.

Words near rub someone's nose in in the dictionary

  1. rub salt in the wound
  2. rub shoulders
  3. rub someone the wrong way
  4. rub someone up the wrong way
  5. rub someone's face in
  6. rub someone's nose in
  7. rub the fear of God into
  8. rub up
  9. rub up against
  10. rub up on
  11. rub up the wrong way

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rub someone's nose in (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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