nose

plural noses

1. A protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.

   She had a small nose between two sparkling blue eyes.

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   The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.[…].

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

2. A snout, the nose of an animal.
3. The tip of an object.

   the nose of a tea-kettle, a bellows, or a fighter plane

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   We submerged very slowly and without headway more than sufficient to keep her nose in the right direction, and as we went down, I saw outlined ahead of us the black opening in the great cliff.

   1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

   Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1

4. The bulge on the side of a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, that fits into the hole of its adjacent piece.

   Synonyms: tab

5. hobbiesThe length of a horse’s nose, used to indicate the distance between horses at the finish of a race, or any very close race.

   Red Rum only won by a nose.

6. perfumeryA perfumer.

   Jacques Polge, Chanel's top “nose” since 1978, made the decision when developers started trying to buy up land around Grasse, where the Muls cultivate three hectares of the precious plant.

   2014 March 4, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

7. The sense of smell.

   We are not offended with […] a dog for a better nose than his master.

   c. 1700, Jeremy Collier, Of Envy

8. idiomaticBouquet, the smell of something, especially wine.
9. The skill in recognising bouquet.

   It is essential that a winetaster develops a good nose.

10. broadlySkill at finding information.

    A successful tabloid reporter has a nose for gossip.

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    I got to know one or two other girls who wrote, and they told me that my sort of stuff would be all right when I got into the peerage or became a leading lady, but if I wanted to live meanwhile it was absolutely necessary to cultivate a "news-nose".

    1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

11. alsoidiomaticThe action of nosing, in the sense to snoop

    They had a nose around the abandoned property.

12. architectureA downward projection from a cornice.

    Synonyms: drip

13. slangAn informer.

    […] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; […]

    1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60

    Synonyms: nark

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

1. intransitiveTo move cautiously by advancing its front end.

   The ship nosed through the minefield.

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   Promontory's "last spike" ceremony was so significant to the USA's history that it is still regularly re-enacted today, using replica locomotives that nose up to each other just as the originals did.

   2025 November 12, Tony Streeter, “All around the world”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 42

2. alsoambitransitiveidiomaticintransitiveTo snoop.

   She was nosing around other people’s business.

3. transitiveTo detect by smell or as if by smell.

   Dogs hurried out to nose Edmund[.]

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 18

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   […] if you finde him not this moneth, you ſhall noſe him as you go vp the ſtaires into the Lobby.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 273

   Real connoisseurs know that to nose and taste properly you have to add still water to your tulip-shaped glass so that the alcohol doesn't overwhelm you.

   2002 October 20, Bob Morris, “Connoisseurship Runneth Over”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

4. transitiveTo push with one's nose; to nuzzle.

   [L]ambs are glad / Nosing the mother's udder, and the bird / Makes his heart voice among the blaze of flowers: […]

   1868, Alfred Tennyson, “Lucretius”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 211

5. transitiveTo defeat (as in a race or other contest) by a narrow margin; sometimes with out.
6. transitiveTo utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang.

   to nose a prayer

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   It makes far better musick when you nose Sternold's, or Wisdom's meeter.

   c. 1635, William Cartwright, The Ordinary

7. transitiveTo furnish with a nose.

   to nose a stair tread

8. transitiveTo confront; be closely face to face or opposite to.
9. intransitiveaeronauticsTo dive down in a steep angle; to nosedive
10. intransitiveaeronauticsTo travel with the nose of the plane/ship aimed in a particular direction.

    The plane is nosing up!

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    We have to get it nosing down.