nosenoun[nəʊ̯z]

• 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.
  • 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.[…].
• 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
  • 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.
• 4

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

• 5

  hobbieshorse-racinghorseracingThe 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

  A 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.
• 7

  The sense of smell.

  • We are not offended with […] a dog for a better nose than his master.
• 8

  Bouquet, the smell of something, especially wine.

noseverb[nəʊ̯z]

• 1

  To move cautiously by advancing its front end.

  • The ship nosed through the minefield.
  • 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.
• 2

  To snoop.

  • She was nosing around other people’s business.
• 3

  To detect by smell or as if by smell.

  • […] if you finde him not this moneth, you ſhall noſe him as you go vp the ſtaires into the Lobby.
  • Dogs hurried out to nose Edmund[.]
• 4

  To 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: […]
• 5

  To defeat (as in a race or other contest) by a narrow margin; sometimes with out.

• 6

  To utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang.

  • to nose a prayer
  • It makes far better musick when you nose Sternold's, or Wisdom's meeter.
• 7

  To furnish with a nose.

  • to nose a stair tread
• 8

  To confront; be closely face to face or opposite to.