dog-nose

present singular third person dog-noses · participle present dog-nosing · participle past dog-nosed · past dog-nosed

1. To nose around like a dog, to sniff as if searching

   They come without being called, dog-nosing the air as though they sense a hard surface upon which they can lean or dash their heads.

   2017 March 17, Trent Michaels, “Nightwood by Djuna Barnes” (book review)

   1 more example

   While Colonel John W. Sink, th’ eminent Grand Island cigar manufacturer, was out “dog-nosing” jack rabbits th’ other night, a glee club serenaded his home for two hours without response.

   1916 February 5, Anonymous, “Hort Flug Sez”, United States Tobacco Journal Volume 85, No.8, page 17

present singular third person dog-noses · participle present dog-nosing · participle past dog-nosed · past dog-nosed

1. To diagnose

   So I dog-nosed my case, as it were, and proved to her that it was something that couldn’t be reached by boneset tea.

   1899, Izora Cecilia Chandler, Elvira Hopkins of Tompkin’s Corner, Wilbur B. Ketchan, page 87

   1 more example

   And now here she was, wearing upon the delicate health of her hostess ; dependent upon the surgery of a more than rural doctor, who said he had dog-nosed the case ; and reduced entirely to her imagination and the daily mail (it seemed to make everything worse that it was brought five miles by a stage-coach) for any knowledge of her now sacred and absorbing interests at Fairharbor.

   1879, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, An Old Maid’s Paradise, Chatto and Windus, published 1885, page 29

1. not comparableRelated to a dog’s nose

   Hang a bell from your doorknob at dog-nose height.

   2011, Amy Fernandez, Maltese, Kennel Club Books, page 72

   1 more example

   He would smash his face into the doors at the end of his walks, trying to hasten their opening, and leave his little brown dog-nose smudges at his level.

   2011, Toni Johnstone, Dogified: A Poodle's Memoir, Tate Publishing, page 121