Nose Meaning
[nəʊ̯z]Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.
nounA snout, the nose of an animal.
Sentence Examples
If you go underwater, hold your nose and blow to clear your ears.
His wife leads him by the nose.
She had dark eyes and a long narrow nose.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She used her ____ to smell the delicious soup cooking on the stove.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a very sensitive ____ and could identify almost any spice just by smell.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-West Germanic *nosu, variant of *nasō, old dual from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s- ~ *nh₂es- (“nose, nostril”). See also Saterland Frisian Noose, West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Swedish nos, Norwegian nos (“snout”), Low German Nääs, German Nase, Swedish näsa, Norwegian nese, Danish næse (“nose”); also Latin nāris (“nostril”), nāsus (“nose”), Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос (nos), Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā, “nostrils”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"We are not offended with […] a dog for a better nose than his master."
— c. 1700, Jeremy Collier, Of Envy:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She used her ____ to smell the delicious soup cooking on the stove.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a very sensitive ____ and could identify almost any spice just by smell.