turn up one's nose

present singular third person turns up one's nose · participle present turning up one's nose · participle past turned up one's nose · past turned up one's nose · alternative turn one's nose up

1. intransitiveTo 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.

   'Not like that!' He shouted. The actors paused, their arms hanging limply by their sides, while Fontan turned up his nose and asked with a sneer: 'What do you mean? What's not like that?'

   1972, Émile Zola, chapter 8, in George Holden, transl., Nana, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   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, →OCLC, page 175

   Sir Felix when he read this letter at his club in the afternoon of the Monday, turned up his nose and shook his head. He thought if there were much of that kind of thing to be done, he could not go on with it, even though the marriage was certain, and the money secure. "What an infernal little ass!" he said to himself as he crumpled the letter up.

   1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, “In Grosvenor Square”, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC, page 158

   Some days the mussel boats were in: […] He liked the smell and he remembered to tell Carmel about it, knowing how she would react; she squirmed and turned up her nose and smiled and said that she was glad she was in the hospital and not having to smell the mussels.

   1992, Colm Tóibín, chapter 11, in The Heather Blazing, New York, N.Y.; London: Penguin Books, published 1994, →ISBN, page 146

   Synonyms: hold one's nose up

2. Followed by at.
   1. idiomaticintransitiveTo 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 more examples

      We listened in profound silence until the conclusion of this harangue, when Captain Guy replied by assuring the chief of his eternal friendship and goodwill, concluding what he had to say be a present of several strings of blue beads and a knife. At the former the monarch, much to our surprise, turned up his nose with some expression of contempt; but the knife gave him the most unlimited satisfaction, and he immediately ordered dinner.

      1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter XIX, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 159–160

      Why I recollect, a bit ago, having a tarrier dog what got old and disagreeable, and was turned out on that account from a swell house in Belgravy. Well, he come into my hands, and nat'rally I put him on paunch, like the rest. Would he eat it? Not he. He had been used to his chicken, and his mutton chops, and his 'ashes: and he turned up his nose at anything commoner.

      1876, James Greenwood, “A Fallen Star”, in Low-Life Deeps: An Account of the Strange Fish to be Found There, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, pages 54–55

      What I want to know is what he gets to eat there. A piece of dried fish now and then—what? That's coming down pretty low for a man who turned up his nose at my table d'hôte!

      1912 October – 1914 May 29 (date written; published 1915 September 24), Joseph Conrad, chapter III, in Victory, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 1921, →OCLC, part I, page 26

      Synonyms: hold one's nose up

   2. idiomaticintransitiveTo 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

      5 more examples

      […] Lord Orville, […] changed the ſubject to Cox's Muſeum, and aſked vvhat he thought of it? "Think!—" ſaid he, "vvhy I think as hovv it i'n't vvorth thinking about. I like no ſuch jem cracks. It is only fit, in my mind, for monkeys,—though, for aught I knovv, they too might turn up their noſes at it."

      1778, [Frances Burney], “Letter XXIII. Evelina in Continuation.”, in Evelina, or, A Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, volume I, London: […] T[homas] Lowndes, […], →OCLC, page 191

      Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room, / And, turning up her nose, with looks abused / Her master, and his myrmidons, of whom / Not one, except the attorney, was amused; […]

      1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza CLIX, page 82

      But he turned up his nose at their mumming and shamming, / And cared (shall I say?) not a d—— for their damming; / So they first read him out of their Church, and next minute / Turned round and declared he had never been in it.

      1848 October 21, [James Russell Lowell], “A Fable for the Critics”, in […] A Fable for Critics; or […] A Glance at a Few of our Literary Progenies […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam […], →OCLC, page 35

      So Old Cheeseman went on, and didn't he lead a miserable life! Of course the Reverend turned up his nose at him, and of course she did—because both of them always do that at all the masters—but he suffered from the fellows most, and he suffered from them constantly.

      1853, Charles Dickens, “The Schoolboy’s Story”, in Christmas Stories from “Household Words” & “All the Year Round”, London: Chapman & Hall; and Humphrey Milford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press American Branch, […], published [1868], →OCLC, page 60

      The Greek and Roman authors, moreover, constituted an aristocracy, beside which any productions of a language counted barbaric, must sink to the lowest plebian level. What learning there was in those days, we may easily imagine, turned up its nose at the strains of the native minstrels.

      a. 1879 (date written), Bayard Taylor, “Earliest German Literature”, in George H[enry] Boker, Marie Hansen Taylor, editors, Studies in German Literature, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1879, →OCLC, page 7

      Synonyms: hold one's nose up