Word.ws English Dictionary

turns up one's nose

turns up one's nose is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turn up one's nose.

Meaning of turn up one's nose

Verb

turn up one's nose (third-person singular simple present turns up one's nose, present participle turning up one's nose, simple past and past participle turned up one's nose)

  1. (intransitive) To tilt one's face upwards slightly, thus raising one's nose, and often to look downwards at someone, as a sign of contempt, disgust, or scorn.
    • When your turn came, you were carefully collared, and led up to the presence, as if even at that awful moment you were mutinously and murderously disposed. The Pasha, looking at you with a vicious sneer, turned up his nose, ejaculated "Ajemi," and prescribed the bastinado.1855, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “Preparations to Quit Cairo”, in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. […], volume I (El-Misr), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans...
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To refuse something offered, especially with contempt, disgust, or scorn, or with apparent disregard about offending the offerer.
    • I tried to help, but they turned up their noses at my advice.
  3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To regard or treat someone with contempt or scorn; to scorn; also, to disregard or ignore someone in a contemptuous or scornful way.
    • [A] Man muſt be nice indeed, that turns up his Noſe at a VVoman, vvho has no vvorſe Imperfection, than ſetting too great a Value upon her Underſtanding.1721, [Colley] Cibber, The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy: A Comedy. […], London: […] B[arnaby Bernard] Lintot, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; and W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 3

Questions about turns up one's nose

What is turns up one's nose the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Turns up one's nose is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turn up one's nose.

Words near turns up one's nose in the dictionary

  1. turns turtle
  2. turns two
  3. turns under
  4. turns up
  5. turns up missing
  6. turns up one's nose
  7. turns up one's toes
  8. turns up the heat
  9. turns up the volume on
  10. turns up trumps
  11. turns upon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turns up one's nose (page history and authors); turn up 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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