Meanings
nounnosethirl (plural nosethirls)
plural nosethirls · alternative nosethril
- UKarchaicregionalA nostril.
proud Encelade, whose wide nosethrils burnd / With breathed flames, like to a furnace red [...].
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
Origin
- Middle Englishnosethirl
- Englishnosethirl
From Middle English nosethirl. By surface analysis, nose + thirl. Compare nostril.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
nosethirl. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nosethirl
MLA
“nosethirl.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nosethirl. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nosethirl,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nosethirl.
Source: nosethirl on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.