Word.ws English Dictionary

rubbing someone's nose in

rubbing someone's nose in is the present participle and gerund of rub someone's nose in.

Meaning of rub someone's nose in

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
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rub, nose, in.

Questions about rubbing someone's nose in

What is rubbing someone's nose in the present participle and gerund of?
Rubbing someone's nose in is the present participle and gerund of rub someone's nose in.

Words near rubbing someone's nose in in the dictionary

  1. rubbing salt in the wound
  2. rubbing shoulders
  3. rubbing someone the wrong way
  4. rubbing someone up the wrong way
  5. rubbing someone's face in
  6. rubbing someone's nose in
  7. rubbing stone
  8. rubbing stones
  9. rubbing strip
  10. rubbing strips
  11. rubbing the fear of God into

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rubbing someone's nose in (page history and authors); 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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