(~s, nosing, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
Your ~ is the part of your face which sticks out above your mouth. You use it for smelling and breathing.
She wiped her ~ with a tissue...
She’s got funny eyes and a big ~.
N-COUNT: oft poss N
2.
The ~ of a vehicle such as a car or aeroplane is the front part of it.
Sue parked off the main street, with the van’s ~ pointing away from the street.
N-COUNT: oft poss N
3.
You can refer to your sense of smell as your ~.
The river that runs through Middlesbrough became ugly on the eye and hard on the ~.
N-COUNT
4.
If a vehicle ~s in a certain direction or if you ~ it there, you move it slowly and carefully in that direction.
He could not see the driver as the car ~d forward...
Ben drove past them, nosing his car into the garage.
VERB: V adv/prep, V n prep/adv
5.
see also hard-~d , toffee-~d
6.
If you keep your ~ clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble. (INFORMAL)
If you kept your ~ clean, you had a job for life.
PHRASE: V and N inflect
7.
If you follow your ~ to get to a place, you go straight ahead or follow the most obvious route.
Just follow your ~ and in about five minutes you’re at the old railway.
PHRASE: V and N inflect
8.
If you follow your ~, you do something in a particular way because you feel it should be done like that, rather than because you are following any plan or rules.
You won’t have to think, just follow your ~.
PHRASE: V and N inflect
9.
If you say that someone has a ~ for something, you mean that they have a natural ability to find it or recognize it.
He had a ~ for trouble and a brilliant tactical mind...
PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n
10.
If you say that someone or something gets up your ~, you mean that they annoy you. (BRIT INFORMAL)
He’s just getting up my ~ so much at the moment.
PHRASE: V and N inflect
11.
If you say that someone looks down their ~ at something or someone, you mean that they believe they are superior to that person or thing and treat them with disrespect.
They rather looked down their ~s at anyone who couldn’t speak French.
PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n disapproval
12.
If you say that you paid through the ~ for something, you are emphasizing that you had to pay what you consider too high a price for it. (INFORMAL)
We don’t like paying through the ~ for our wine when eating out.
PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for n emphasis
13.
If someone pokes their ~ into something or sticks their ~ into something, they try to interfere with it even though it does not concern them. (INFORMAL)
We don’t like strangers who poke their ~s into our affairs...
Why did you have to stick your ~ in?
= meddle
PHRASE: V and N inflect, PHR n disapproval
14.
To rub someone’s ~ in something that they do not want to think about, such as a failing or a mistake they have made, means to remind them repeatedly about it. (INFORMAL)
His enemies will attempt to rub his ~ in past policy statements.
PHRASE: V and N inflect, PHR n
15.
If you say that someone is cutting off their ~ to spite their face, you mean they do something that they think will hurt someone, without realizing or caring that it will hurt themselves as well.
There is evidence that the industry’s greed means that it is cutting off its ~ to spite its face.
PHRASE: V inflects disapproval
16.
If vehicles are ~ to tail, the front of one vehicle is close behind the back of another. (mainly BRIT; in AM, use bumper-to-bumper )
...a line of about twenty fast-moving trucks driving ~ to tail.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
17.
If you thumb your ~ at someone, you behave in a way that shows that you do not care what they think.
He has always thumbed his ~ at the media.
PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n
18.
If you turn up your ~ at something, you reject it because you think that it is not good enough for you.
I’m not in a financial position to turn up my ~ at several hundred thousand pounds.
PHRASE: V and N inflect, usu PHR at n
19.
If you do something under someone’s ~, you do it right in front of them, without trying to hide it from them.
Okay so have an affair, but not right under my ~.
PHRASE: N inflects
20.
to put someone’s ~ out of joint: see joint