Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a search.

1987		Beano Comic Library No. 121 13: I’m bored! I think I’ll have a gnosey around!
1997		C. McPherson Weir 56: I was having a good nosy around.
1999		Indep. Traveller 11 Sept. 5: Enough time to have a quick nose around the shops and cafes.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] They’d [...] have a good nose around and check if anyone was watching.

(drugs) the butt of a marijuana cigarette.

1967		Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction (3rd edn).
1977		S.N. Pradhan Drug Abuse.

1. cocaine.

1927		D. Hammett ‘The big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 277: ‘This is straight dope — hones’ to Gawd!’ ‘Yeah, straight from the nose-candy!’.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 13: The guy over in the corner with the fancy moustache is runnin’ nose candy.
1948		J. Evans Halo for Satan 24: A deck of nose candy for sale.
1954		(con. 1940s) E. Lambert Veterans 45: ‘What’s nose candy?’ I asked Hagen. ‘What Carol’s stuffed with pal. Cocaine.’.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 76: Cocaine is called ‘nose-candy’ for a reason.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 243: A Bull Durham tobacco bag around her neck under her sweat shirt clearly stencilled: ‘Nose Candy!’.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 146: ‘You can put your pot way [...] I’ve got something a bit better’ [...] ‘Some nose candy?’ said Jill.
1995		G. Small Ruthless 238: After all, it is not one or two posse drug dealers who have become so enamoured of their ‘nose candy’ [...] that they have neglected to sell it.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] She can get a little narky after too much nose candy.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 257: Add nose candy and carbohydrates and the lack of exercise.
2011		Meek Mill ‘Middle of Da Summe’ 🎵 Tryna get that money, zip-locks o’ nose candy.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 240: Thery had [...] pale skin rouged from hard living and nose candy.

2. heroin.

1925		D. Hammett ‘Dead Yellow Women’ Story Omnibus (1966) 156: Too much heroin broke his nerves [...] Since then Dummy had become an errand boy for whoever would stake him to the price of his necessary nose-candy.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Shakedown’ in Dan Turner Detective Mar. 🌐 The coroner diagnosed her as a hop-head; reported it as an accidental suicide from an overdose of nose candy.

(drugs) taking narcotic drugs by sniffing them through the nose rather than by injection.

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 201: Nose habit. An addicition to cocaine.
1999		Official Kresky Homepage 🌐 At the time I had about a grand a day nose habit. So I had to make mine any which I could.

(drugs) a puff of a marijuana cigarette taken through the nose rather than the lips.

1975

G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 63: nose hit n Method of inhaling smoke from a marijuana cigarette by sniffing the smoke from the ash either to intensify the effect or to inhale the butt of a roach when it is too short to puff.

(drugs) cocaine; occas. heroin, morphine.

1936		Modern Times [film intertitle] Charlie is incarcerated as a suspected communist instigator, and while at a meal the guards come searching for nose-powder.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: nose powder. Cocaine, heroin, or morphine, especially in a form for inhaling.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 338: nose powder: Cocaine.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 16: Nose powder [...] Nose stuff — Cocaine.

the inhalation of cocaine.

2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 44: Pissed and on the powder, having the big nose-up.
2008		J. Niven Kill Your Friends (2009) 73: That’s all he’s got not, isn’t it? The pumping [...] No nose-up, no pills, no frosty beers.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 405: Dougie keeps popping off to the khazi for fat rails [...] While Doug’s having a nose-up Morty drops an FYI on me.

see separate entries.

(Auds. drugs) cocaine.

2021

Betoota-isms 124: Nose Beers [...] 1. Cocaine.

see separate entries.

(drugs) a large cannabis cigarette rolled with a rosebud-shaped twist of paper on the end.

2001

R. Kemplay ‘The Joint Roller’s Handbook’ at Smokinpuppy.com 🌐 The bigger, badder, bastard brother of the Tulip (try saying that after you’ve smoked one). It takes some effort to roll, but a good nose cone is a king size chunk of truly cosmic proportions.

see separate entries.

see noser n. (1)

1. a blow on the nose.

1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Nosegay. A blow on the nose. Pugilistic cant.
1892		A. Bierce ‘Aspirants Three’ Black Beetles in Amber 250: I’ll fight [...] Here’s at you, nosegay!

2. (UK prison) tobacco.

1989

P. Manning ‘Sl.’ in Kray (1989) 62: To touch your nose in prison means you want a cigarette, / Because nosegay in the old days was all the burn you’d get.

1. (US black) a sexual obsession with some object of desire.

1966		Current Sl. I:2 4/2: Nose job, n. A planned assault on someone’s emotions.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 36: Nose job, n. In love.

2. a rhinoplasty, cosmetic plastic surgery on one’s nose.

1960		H. Ellison ‘Final Shtick’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 15: You had the nose-job done to give you such a fine Gentile snout.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 22: I’m saving up for caps and a nose job.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 27: ‘Maybe he got a nose job,’ countered Perry. ‘Maybe he got a handjob,’ said Joey.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 22: I was born with an Irish pug. It looked too much like a nose job.
1986		F. Pitt-Kethley Sky Ray Lolly 63: At forty odd, the only obvious flaw – / the ripple of a lousy nose-job.
1998		C. Fleming High Concept 103: LaRocca told her to get a nose job.
2000		Sun. Times Rev. 6 Feb. 3: Euro-trashy children with vast allowances and a sports car or a nose job as a 17th birthday present.
2002		Guardian G2 29 Oct. 15: Nose jobs are more popular than liposuction.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 6: Alky Al owned [...] nine nose-job clinics.

a headbutt.

1999

J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] I heard someone got stiffed off a nose kiss one time.

(US) snoring.

1911

S. Ford Torchy 289: I only jabbed my elbows in his ribs when he got to tunin’ up the nose music too loud.

(US) alcohol; thus paint one’s nose, to (take a) drink.

1849		Paul Pry 15 Jan. n.p.: Paul Wishes to Know [...] What Jolly Red-nose, alias Honest John, of the Five Bells [...] paid for painting his nose?
[1856		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Jan. 3/1: [He] might be well to do in the world, were he not in the habit of exercising his calling as a painter upon his own nose, by repeated doses of ‘blue ruin’].
1881		A.A. Hayes New Colorado 158: We saw [...] a sign, in which the name which I have never encountered elsewhere was given to stimulating beverages. This sign was ‘Nosepaint and Lunch’ .
1881		Greenock Advertiser 1 Oct. 4/1: The rancher slapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he would [...] ‘smile,’ [...] ‘test the tipple,’ [...] ‘sample,’ [...] ‘paint your nose’.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Sept. 2/2: The snobs and snides and cads and dandy landlubber naval officers [...] with their noses painted.
1894		Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 4: [pic caption] nose paint sold here.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 11: He’s been fretful about his whiskey [...] but beyond pickin’ flaws in his nose-paint thar ain’t much to take hold on about him.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 14/4: A hunk of bush phraseology:– ‘Yes, ole Brown was a reg’lar ole coot, a right down pukacker. Yer could ring a tatt into him anytime. He rolled ’is marble in last year – too much nose-paint, yer know.’ Which all meant merely that Brown was shiftless and credulous and had died through excessive drinking.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 July 4/7: Taking a little nosepaint with a client on Tuesday [etc.].
1919		A. Baer Two and Three 17 Jan. [synd. col.] With the old nose rouge listed among the alien enemies [etc].
1920		A. Baer Vacation Trunk 4 Aug. [synd. col.] He never siphoned up the old nose varnish, chewed or smoked.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 586: In a seedy getup and a strong suspicion of nosepaint about the nasal appendage.
1929		C. Coe Hooch! 6: You’ll buy him a pint of nose paint.
1933		W. Winchell On Broadway 23 May [synd. col.] I was loaded with nose-paint caressing a box dat had more locks on it den Hoodeenee!
1941		M. Prenner ‘Drunk in Sl.’ in AS XVI:1 Jan. 70/2: liquor [...] nose paint.
1972		Fond Du Lac (WI) Reporter 13 Oct. 8/3: Saloon keepers called the stuff they pushed across the bars to cowboys whiskey. What the cowboys called it, however, was ‘bug juice,’ ‘gut warmer,’ ‘nose paint,’ ‘red eye,’ ‘rotgut,’ ‘scamper juice,’ ‘snake poison’ or ‘tonsil varnish.’.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

1. a child or person with offensive habits.

1944

G. Fowler Good Night, Sweet Prince 101: He was waist-deep in small Southern nose-pickers slugging him for his autograph.

2. a rustic, a peasant.

1970

Current Sl. IV:2.

pince-nez.

1888

‘’Arry at a Radical Reception’ in Punch 12 May 219/1: You know Tommy Trotter – pale face, ginger hair, and nose-pinchers.

1. a handkerchief.

1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 23: Tickle, tickle goes my boscis agin, and I had to stop to sarch my pocket for my nose-rag.
1856		Bell’s Life in Sydney 28 June 3/2: [He] swore to having had the pleasure of meeting the prisoner in a boozing ken [...] and deposed, that after losing sight of him he speedily missed his nose rag.
1875		Weekly Kansas Chief (Troy, KS) 15 Apr. 2/2: After death the bones, shirts, and nose-rags, etc., of such imposters, retain the same virtues as their owners possessed.
1888		Thomas Co. Cat. (Colby, KS) 13 Sept. 1/2: T. is for Thurman with noserag unfurled.
1891		H. Lawson ‘His Last Ride’ in Roderick (1972) 26: Gimme yer nose-rag.
c.1905		J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 ‘I’ll cut across to that cloth-shop, an’ git a new nose-rag.’ [...] He tossed his white silk handkerchief to a barefooted guttersnipe.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 5: Lend us a loan of your noserag to wipe my razor.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 366: Well, where’s your nose-rag?
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 307: Those bursts of blood on my noserag and shirt.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 91: He tore off part of an old shirt that he kept for nose-rags.

2. (US, also nigger nose-rag) a newspaper.

1867		Fayetteville Observer (TN) 22 Aug. 1/6: The down-town daily nigger nose-rag, sometimes called ‘The Disptach’.
1868		Holt. Co. Sentinel (Oregon, MO) 15 May 2/2: The Democratic mushroom [...] is amusing itself by calling the republic Papers of the Northwest ‘nigger nose-rags’.
1875		Cairo Bulletin (IL) 27 july 2/2: The Eagle expresses it, ‘by an individual who is endeavouring to keep body and soul together by publishing a one-horse nose rag’.
1875		Anderson Intelligencer (SC) 24 June 4/2: We will inform the [...] evader of truth and honesty who runs the little nigger nose-rag [...] that he cannot rain any of his infernal lies down our throat.

3. an unpopular person.

1942

(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 124: You’re a decent lad, a real decent lad [...] not like th’ rest o’ them, nose-rags, toe-rags, flittin’ afther Mr. Anthony here.

(Aus./US) a propensity for interfering.

1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 334/1: nose trouble, n. Prying curiosity.
1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 110: They’re suspicious [...] and they get a bad case of nose trouble.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 123: Let’s go underground [...] in case the dirty old man has a bad case of nose trouble.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 251: nose trouble (n) Over-inquisitiveness.

1. a short pipe.

1864		Western Dly Press 9 Dec. 3/1: Seedy-looking caricatures of ‘swells’ perseveringly smoked blackened ‘nose-warmers’.
1884		Morn. Post (London) 5 May 2/5: In a blue jersey and white straw hat, and with the shortest of all short pipes [...]— a regular nose-warmer.
1886		Essex Newsman 20 May 3/2: Some of the older women are confirmed smokers, and [...] enjoy the comforts of a ‘nose-warmer’ or short clay pipe.
1895		Taranaki Herald (NZ) 12 Oct. 2/9: The swaggie had tobacco and a pipe [...] and endeavoured to light his nose warmer.
1926		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 15 Oct. 16/2: There were women cigar smokers before Georges Sand, and [...] quaint old irish women who nurses nose-warmers.
1945		R.S. Close Love me Sailor 17: The elder held a ‘nose warmer’ between his aged, bleached lips.

2. (US) consommé in a cup.

1933

W. Winchell in Havana Eve. Telegram 3 Feb. 4/2: The slanguage used by the waiters of Dinty Moore’s restaurant fascinated us the other sundown when, while seated in the rear near the chef, we heard a waiter ask for: ‘Two nose warmers!’ ‘What’s a nose warmer?’ we asked Moore. ‘Consomme in a cup,’ he explained.

see nose paint ()

a handkerchief.

1913

A. Lunn Harrovians 95: When I was a new man I once shoved twenty nosewipes down my bags.

1. a handkerchief.

1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 132: I takes out my noshe-viper to blow my noshe.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 52: He’d rub his right eye with his nosewiper.
2001		E. Rhodes Pittsburgh City Paper 29 Aug. 🌐 So where have all the hankies gone? Has the facial tissue finally defeated the hanky as the nose-wiper of choice?

2. a toady [lit. image, but note ass-wiper n.].

1929

‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 212: There was Craigan’s nose-wiper by me, Joe Gates.

see brandy blossom under blossom n.²

see chew someone’s ear v. (3)

to deny or reject a statement.

1915

N.Z. Truth 28 Aug. 7/7: Seth gave him the blunt nose on this and, ‘You’re a liar’.

to be punished, lit. and fig.

1917

A.G. Empey Over the Top 96: When the roll was called we found that we had gotten it in the nose for sixty-three casualties.

1. (US) to get drunk.

1876

St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: The party are supposed to be ‘off on a tear,’ and should one of them, at this stage of the game, ‘get it up his nose,’ he is asked by his beloved associate if he has ‘got ’em,’ and is requested to ‘heave her up, old man’.

2. to lose one’s temper.

1960

Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 48: Wilbert Cream would get it up his nose and start attacking me.

to curry favour.

1989

H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 61: The sycophant may also be said to brown [someone], to get nose with [someone], to be a brownie (also with allusion to a junior Girl Scout), or to receive brownie points.

(drugs) to sniff cocaine.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 239: get (one’s) nose cold Get high from cocaine.

see have one’s nose open

(US) to get drunk.

1913–14

Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 289: T-bone has to go and get his nose wet and pull a George Washington on me.

(US black) to have another person utterly dependent on oneself, typically in a one-sided love relationship.

1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 66: got (your) nose v. 1. to be in love [...] 2. to have someone else under your control through infatuation.
1974		H.L. Foster Playin’ the Dozens 51: When a male has a female’s nose, she is in his power, which usually means she is his to do with as he pleases sexually.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 126: Woman she just got yo’ nose! Like you strung out behind a girl.

1. to produce sexual excitement in someone.

1957		Tarhell Slim & Little Ann [song title] You Got My Nose Wide Open.
1965		W. King ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 302: Kinda scared to show too much favoritism, making meaningless chit-chat, you know, like she had both our noses open.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 31: She’s got his nose open wide enough to shove in a coffin.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 109: The girl has his nose open, big-time.
2004		Simon & Burns ‘Straight and True’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 5 [TV script] Now she got our boy with his nose wide open.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 90: ‘That girl’s got your nose open, and you ain’t even dipped your wick’.

2. to be under someone’s control (other than sexually).

1971

H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: nose open adv. 1. under someone’s control; strongly influenced by; e.g. He sure got your nose open.

3. to anger someone.

1976

Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 30 Mar. 2/1: If someone with a shank throws down on a hack there is friction in the joint. It may just bring on a fever, and certainly is going to get the man’s nose open.

(orig. US) to annoy, to irritate.

1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top 114: The Germans must have known about these orders, for even in the day their transports and troops used to expose themselves as if they were on parade. This sure got up our nose, sitting there day after day, with fine targets in front of us but unable to send over a shell.
1941		letter in Blake Morrison Things My Mother Never Told Me (2002) 188: My God do they get up my shirt.
1948		K. Williams Diaries 7 June 30: The producer [...] looks as if he’s going to get up everybody’s nose.
1959		Galton & Simpson ‘The Poetry Society’ Hancock’s Half-Hour [radio script] He’s getting up my nose, this bloke.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 121: That’s always got up Clew’s nose.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 305: He really got up John’s nose.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 154: Only no point getting up his nose too far though.
2000		Observer 16 Jan. 31: It is starting to get up so many peoples’ noses, especially agnostics, humanists and atheists.
2004		J. McCourt ‘Vilja de Tanquay Exults’ in Queer Street 306: Just then what some bleedin’ dreary-sof Jerry / Jad to say [...] / Got up / My nose an no mistake.
2012		Jamaican Gleaner 14 May 🌐 You lot really gets up my nose [...] get a life man.

to hit, to reprimand; also in fig. use.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 11/2: The C.E. Australian School of Theology seems to have given Anglican Church dogma one on the nose.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 51: The gent tried to attack me, but I gave him one on the nose.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 29: I wanted to give Coker one on the nose.

to be drunk.

1630		J. Taylor ‘A Brood of Cormorants’ in Works (1869) III 5: For though he be as drunke as any Rat, / He hath but catcht a Foxe, or whipt the Cat. / Or some say hee’s bewitcht, or scratcht, or blinde, [...] Or seene the Lyons, or his nose is dirty, / Or hee’s pot-shaken, or out, two and thirty.
1640		‘Mary Tattle-well’ Womens sharpe revenge 175: The first Health is call’d a Whiffe, the second a Slash, the third a Hunch, the fourth Thrust, the fift is call’d Pot-shaken, the sixth is seeing the Lions, the seventh he is scratch’d, the eighth, his Nose is dirty, the ninth he hath whipt the Catt, the tenth, he is fox’d, the eleventh, he is Bewitch’d, the twelfth, he is Blinde, and the thirteenth, and last, he is drunke.

to arrive at a house in time for a meal.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He has a good Nose, of a Smell-Feast.

(Aus./N.Z.) to bear a grudge against someone, to take offence.

1903

J. Furphy Such is Life 14: I don’t blame ole Martin to have a bit of a nose on me.

see get one’s face in a knot under face n.

to have one’s nose pulled.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Parenthesis. To put a man’s nose into a Parenthesis: to Pull it, the fingers & Thumb answering the Hooks or Crooks.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: To put a man’s nose into a parenthesis: to pull it, the fingers and thumb answering the hooks or crochets.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 132: Parenthesis (a) — it is this thing, itself ( ); and when a man’s nose, or any prominent part of him, may get irrevocably between the thing — he is in a bad way; some few novices have died of it.

1. to be infatuated with another person.

1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 357: We [...] restrained George from getting his nose opened up in Hot Shoppe on Colfax.
1963		R.I. McDavid Mencken’s Amer. Lang. 745: A cat in hot pursuit of a chick or fox is said to have his nose wide open.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 64: I think Jimmy strung out behind her. His nose is wide open.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 152: You still got your nose open for that young bitch, ain’t you?
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 136: To have your nose wide open [...] picture[s] the individual as little more than an obedient animal.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 7: Most working girls were like that, their noses open wider than their cunts.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Got me open. Got your back. Baby got back.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘Still got your nose open for your big-tit bitch’.

2. (US black / drugs) to be using cocaine.

1972

E. Folb Urban Black Argot 140: Have Your Nose Wide Open [...] to be snorting cocaine.

3. to be excited – in a non-sexual context.

1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 162: You really got your nose open over this trip.
1988		(con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 8: You got your nose wide open an’ your tail straight up.

4. to be angry.

1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 356: Be a buddy and watch m’nose don’t open up in Denver will you Jack?
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 242: ‘You better take it easy.’ [...] ‘That’s what I intend to do, only trouble is m’nose opens up and I can’t tell what I’m doing.’.

to act sycophantically, to toady; cit. 1979 also implies brown-nose v.

1979		(con. 1949) J. Hurling Boomers 152: You got your nose so high up Brass Ball’s ass you can’t see anything but brown.
1984		W. Murray Tip on a Dead Crab 123: He’s got his nose up your ass if you’re a winner.
2002		Confused posting 14 Nov. on ‘Ghost Recon Team Ladder’ on Rumble Forums 🌐 Your like the lame retard that follows ranger around and has his nose up his ass. Go get a life and put the bong down you get dumber every damn day. I remember why I left this game now too many tards such as yourselves.

1. (orig. milit.) to avoid alcohol.

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 162/1: Keep your nose clean (Army). Avoid drink.
1937		J.T. Farrell ‘A Sunday in April’ in Fellow Countrymen (1937) 435: If I work along [...] and keep my nose clean, who knows, I might get myself fixed up.
1943		C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1986) 27: Buck up and keep your nose clean.

2. (also keep one’s snout clean) to lead a law-abiding, upright life.

1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 18 June n.p.: wants to know If it would not be advisable for L—d A— n to keep his nose clean, unless he wants it wiped .
1848		Boston Blade 10 June n.p.: You had better keep your nose clean before you open your mouth, old spew gag.
1887		Lantern (New Orleans, LA) 13 Oct. 5: There’s worse fellows than you looking for it, and if you only keep your nose clean, we’ll let you have it.
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act I: Well, keep yer nose clean, Gimpty, an’ yer lips buttoned up tight, see?
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 107: If you keep your nose clean, you can last as long as you want to.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 76: That’s all [...] And keep your nose clean.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 34: As far as I know, his nose is clean.
1952		K.C. Lamott Stockade 61: You keep your nose clean, Meathead.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 135: Three thousand years in show business and I always keep my nose clean.
1968		J.Q. Wilson Police Behavior 49: The young patrolman is taught ‘not to stick his head out’ and to ‘keep his nose clean’ .
1969		A. Buzo Rooted IIi i: Don’t get on the hops too much, keep your nose clean and your feet dry and you can’t go wrong.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 50: I kept my nose clean [...] I decided to lay low, do my job and stay in touch with Ward.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 6: Keep your nose clean and he can pull you back in a couple of years.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘A Slow Bus to Chingford’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Use your old filbert, keep your nose clean.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time app. C 207: [B]ecause I’m right behind the 8 ball, I’ve got to keep my nose clean at all times.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 140: Make your friends. Keep your nose clean. And report to us regularly about the men and women you work with.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] Kept me nose clean these last few months, I have. So they’re letting me out, just for the Christmas.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 21: I’ve got to keep my nose clean as there’s this new D.I. post which is coming up soon.
1999		J. Ellroy ‘My Life as a Creep’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 125: My new PO [...] told me to avoid drugs and keep my snout clean.
2002		D. Flusfeder Gift 160: Keep out of trouble son. Nose clean.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 91: Teddy did a pop for loan-sharking a few years ago, but has kept his nose clean until recently.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 51: Do your job, stay healthy, and keep your nose clean.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 322: He knew he was on trial so he kept his nose clean.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 21: [H]e’d basically kept his nose clean since he started driving for Kitchener Seafood.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 19: [H]e was making an effort to keep his nose clean.

3. to resist interfering in things that are not one’s business.

1929		D.H. Clarke In the reign of Rothstein 59: If a man minds his own business – ‘keeps his nose clean’ in gangster argot – he can go through life very sweetly.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 18: That shiny-haired Mick wouldn’ keep his nose clean.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 517: They probably didn’t keep their noses clean.
1945		P. Cheyney I’ll Say She Does! (1955) 12: You’re a guy who has gotta reputation for keepin’ his nose clean, but [...] you’re in bad with the big boy.
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 87: Would Whitcomb be interested in a job that paid $20,000 a year for as many years as he kept his nose clean.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 69: I went back to my desk [...] wondering why [...] Menendez would think it worth his time to come in person to my office and warn me to keep my nose clean.
1958		J. Osborne Epitaph for George Dillon Act I: Kindly keep your nose clean in future, will you?
1976		M. Braly False Starts 156: ‘What’s Quentin like?’ I asked. ‘It’s okay, I hear. If you keep your nose clean and mind your own business.’.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 79: His turn in the CID could come, if he keeps his nose clean.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 169: I tol’ju there were gonna be times when I cun’t save your from shit. Thass why you gotta keep yuh nose clean.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 153: Keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Just keep ya nose clean and lie low’.

4. of a criminal, to avoid being implicated in something illegal.

1933		Butler & Driscoll Dock Walloper 2: clews to the butler vernacular [...] keep your nose clean—be careful.
1939		R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 107: The guy wouldn’t uncover hisself for that kind of money. [...] He’d dump the marbles and keep his nose clean.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 322: You can see the spot I was in [...] just to keep my nose clean.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 199: I was called before the deputy [...] I said I’d been keeping my nose pretty clean, doing all right, just getting along.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 44: You won’t do all that [i.e. jail time] if you keep your nose clean.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 6: Just keep your nose clean, that’s all I’m askin’ ya both.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 156: To keep your nose clean isn’t going to be that easy.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 97: By concentrating on the administrative side, I kept my nose clean.
1998		(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 161: After locking me in the cell, he smiled and said, ‘Things get a lot worse around here if you don’t keep your nose clean, Yank’.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 11: Just keep your noses wiped and stay out of trouble.

(US) to toady to.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 115: Don’t get cute. Keep your nose square in his ass.
2001		trish9095 posting about article by Therese Droste ‘Do It Your Way’ on Monster Admin/Support Forum 8 Nov. 🌐 The reason the brownnoser’s ‘nose’ is always brown is for the simple fact they ‘keep their nose’ so far up managements ass, they tend to eat, smell and live the BS they produce.

to miss out a person during the passing of a bottle around the table.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: You make a Bridge of his Nose, when you pass your next Neighbor in Drinking, or one is preferr’d over another’s Head.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 60: Pray, my Lord, don’t make a Bridge of my Nose.
1768		J. Ray Proverbs (4th edn) in Bohn (1855) 151: To make a bridge of one’s nose, i.e. To intercept one’s trencher, cup, or the like.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To Make a bridge of any one’s Nose; to push the Bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling in his Turn; to pass one over.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: To make a bridge of any one’s nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

to thumb one’s nose.

1889		Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Nov. 2/3: The cheeky boy, with the natural ingratitude of youth, often makes a long nose at his master [...] [F&H].
1910		E. Rosen In the Foreign Legion 11: I hopped over the frontier and made long nose at the German cop I left on the other side with a long face.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 84: Friday pushed his faced through the crack in the door and made a long nose.
1939		F.A. Waterhouse Sands of Destint 98: Small boys pressed their closed fist under their nose (the Arab equivalent of a long-nose) and would run down an alleyway before an officer could catch them.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 340: That peculiar form of recognition variously known as ‘the five-finger salute’, nose-thumbing’, ‘making a long nose’ or ‘long bacon’.

to cheat, to deceive.

1628

H. Burton Israels Fast sig. B4: betraid into the pawes of the Beast, cheated & nosewiped euen to their face .

see under brown nose n.

(US) drunk.

1926

Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: On His Nose - see Fried.

1. (UK Und.) on the watch, on the lookout; thus phr. beaks (out) on the nose, magistrates peforming their evening rounds.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 322: Their ogles were on the roll, under an apprehension that the beaks were out on the nose.
1830		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 23: Why there can’t be any body on the nose, I should think? but I heard a noise.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 5: Beaks out on the nose, magistrates out on a search night.
1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 106: At that early hour they considered the officers were not on the scent, ‘upon the nose,’ as they called it.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Beaks on the nose magistrates on their rounds on a search night.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: ‘[O]n the nose,’ on the lookout.

2. (gambling) describing a wager placed on a horse to win, e.g. £5 on the nose.

1920		R. Lardner Big Town 156: I’m sorry we didn’t play her on the nose, but I was advised to play safe.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 7: Give Maxie five hundred to-morrow morning [...] On the nose.
1941		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Fun in an Artist’s Studio’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 142: He had ten bucks on the nose.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 150: The whole two thousand at once on the the nose.
1968		W.S. Hoffman Loser 27: With Kelly along you can bet the whole hundred-and-a-half on one race. On the nose. You can win what you owe in three races.
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 97: Five-dollar players became ten-dollar players and those who usually bet ‘place and show’ now insisted they had bet ‘on the nose’ .
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 240: Norton had thirty on the nose.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 267: I hung onto this score note which I ended up plonking on the nose of this dead-set top-oil cert .
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 157: I told this la de da old toff to whack all his dough on Leilani on the nose.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] Put that on and give me another two hundred on the nose.

3. describing a reward offered for information leading to the capture of a criminal.

1940

S. Longstreet Decade 317: Twenty grand on his nose if you tip your mitt to the dicks – but its death kale.

4. in fig. use of sense 5, unpleasant, and thus offensive morally or aesthetically as well as to the nostrils.

1940		Newcastle Sun (NSW) 13 Mov. 4/3: We thought after the deplorably bad taste of Old Rowley last week, that the horses, for the time being, were a bit ‘on the nose’.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 49: Nose, on the: (said of things) disliked, offensive.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 5: ‘Jerry tells me they’re on the nose.’ [...] ‘Yeah. Just a coupler ———.’ He used a word that means that they titillated the passions and then refused to satisfy them.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 148: Terrible, isn’t it? On the nose.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 83: And that’s a bit on the nose as far as Joshua’s concerned.
1975		(con. 1930s) H. Anderson Men of the Milford Road 84: I thought this was a bit ‘on the nose’.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 25: There’s nothing worse, let’s face it, than a woman on the nose when you get down to it.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 144: I’m just glad you’re sitting downwind [...] ’Cause your politics are all on the nose, Mom, j’know that. They stink.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 26: Time like this, the Labor Party on the nose with the punters, we should all be pulling together.
2009		P. Temple Truth 350: Karen Mellish’s charges could be the fatal blow to a government seriously on the nose with voters.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘A little on the nose for a place on the beach, don’t you think?’.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] As a result, using mules was on the nose, for the time being. The arrest of Clifford and Welsh had seen to that.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 264: Well that’s a little on the nose. You gonna take the hood off now?

5. (Aus./N.Z.) foul-smelling.

1945		‘Down in the Dark Alley’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of RAAF 1939-45 🌐 Pink. God! how that lass did stink! / [...] / Rose. God she was on the nose!
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 59: ‘Jeez it stinks in here Ken.’ ‘Yeah, it’s on the nose all right.’.
1964		R. Helmer Stag Party 48: It’s a bit on the nose, isn’t it?
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 20: Without warning he removed his boots and the narrow strips of rag wrapped round his feet. ‘By cripes! They’re a bit on the nose,’ said my mate [...] ‘What’s the Prince Albert’s for? have you got corns?’.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 70: LES. Jeez, somethin's on the nose/ SHANE. It’s aftershave.
1996		S. Maloney Brush-Off (1998) 86: An overfilled garbage bag, a little on the nose in the heat.
2004		T. Winton ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 11: I know it’s hot and she’s had a tough day but she’s on the nose [...] there’s a blast of BO that could kill a wildebeest.

6. accurate, to the point, to the minute.

1912		C. Mathewson Pitching in a Pinch 144: [T]he report went around [...] that the Philadelphia club was stealing signals, because the batters were popping them all on the nose, but no one was able to discover the transmitter.
1947		E. Condon We Called It Music 155: I gave the boys the beat and we jumped into China Boy. We opened on the nose, all playing .
1961		J. Jacobs American Cities 10: Let's see . . . the child population is just about average for the city, on the nose.
1974		R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 113: When a batter hits a baseball on the nose he says, ‘I got it all’ .
1982		W.D. Myers Won’t Know Till I Get There 25: At three o’clock, almost on the nose, they called us.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] Because her assumption was straight-up right on the nose.

(US black) to provoke sexual excitement in someone.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 75: One of them tight pussies opened his nose wide enough to drive a freight train through.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 97: She opened up Red’s nose as none of his whores ever had.

to surpass, to outdo.

1843

Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin II 79: Indeed he once or twice, to borrow a not very delicate sporting phrase, ‘wiped my nose’.