Word.ws English Dictionary

see past the end of one's nose

see past the end of one's nose verb: to have insight into underlying facts or consequences; to possess common sense or a vision for the future.

Verb

see past the end of one's nose (third-person singular simple present sees past the end of one's nose, present participle seeing past the end of one's nose, simple past saw past the end of one's nose, past participle seen past the end of one's nose)

  1. (idiomatic) To have insight into underlying facts or consequences; to possess common sense or a vision for the future.
    • “If you could find a curator somewhere—I admit this is difficult—who can see beyond the end of his nose, he would be glad to be a true innovator and get out of the international rut.”1964 September 13, John Canaday, “Hello Sr. Brest”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Dec 2015
    • If my mother got on your case for being thoughtless or lacking in prudence or foresight, she likely would declare that you could not "see past the end of your nose".1988 December 7, Robert Maynard, “Bush better not ignore Mexico”, in Spartanburg Herald-Journal, US, retrieved 15 Dec 2015, page A10

Forms of see past the end of one's nose

third-person singular presentsees past the end of one's nose
present participleseeing past the end of one's nose
pastsaw past the end of one's nose
past participleseen past the end of one's nose

Questions about see past the end of one's nose

What does see past the end of one's nose mean?
See past the end of one's nose means to have insight into underlying facts or consequences; to possess common sense or a vision for the future.
What part of speech is see past the end of one's nose?
See past the end of one's nose is a verb.
What is the past tense of see past the end of one's nose?
The past tense of see past the end of one's nose is saw past the end of one's nose.

Words near see past the end of one's nose in the dictionary

  1. see one's way to
  2. see oneself out
  3. see out
  4. see over
  5. see past
  6. see past the end of one's nose
  7. see past the tip of one's nose
  8. see reason
  9. see red
  10. see sense
  11. see service

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: see past the end of 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-see past the end of one's nose.ogg.

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