nod

SayNOD/nɑd/UK/nɒd/AUS/nɔd/

Noun pluralnods

14 meanings of nod

1
verbtransitive or intransitive
To move the head up and down, often to show agreement.
Audience members began to nod as the speaker made her point.
She nodded slowly, signaling that she agreed with the plan.
Note
A gentle gesture with a forceful ancestry. Middle English nodden probably comes through an unrecorded Old English *hnodian, 'to nod, shake the head', from a Germanic verb meaning 'to beat, pound, push'. The verb works with or without an object: you can simply nod, or nod your head. The gesture it names lies behind every later use of the word, from dozing in a chair to giving approval.
2
nouncountable
A single up-and-down movement of the head, used to show agreement or as a brief greeting.
He answered with a single nod and went back to work.
A polite nod was all the recognition the two rivals offered each other.
3
verbtransitive or intransitive
To briefly lower the head as a quick greeting.
She nodded to a few familiar faces before taking her seat.
Passing acquaintances nod to each other without stopping to talk.
Similarbow
4
nouncountable
A reference or allusion to something, often as a subtle acknowledgment.
The new logo is a clever nod to the company's founding year.
Critics noticed the novel's many nods to classic detective fiction.
Similarallusion, reference, homage, tribute
5
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To make an indirect reference to something.
The closing speech nodded to the founders without naming any of them.
Their new songs nod to the synth-heavy music of the 1980s.
Similarallude, refer
Note
The figurative gesture of critics and reviewers: one work nods to another when it signals a debt without spelling it out. Scott Tobias wrote that the title of The Kid With A Bike nods to Bicycle Thieves. The verb is intransitive and takes to, so the thing alluded to is never its direct object. The noun a nod to something follows the same pattern.
6
verbtransitive
To express or indicate something by means of a nod.
The chairman nodded his approval and the meeting moved on.
Players nod their readiness to the referee before the match begins.
Similarsignal, indicate
7
verbintransitive
To gradually drift into sleep, especially while sitting.
Several passengers nodded as the train rocked gently through the night.
She tried not to nod during the afternoon meeting.
Similardoze, drowse
8
nounfigurativelycountable
Formal approval or permission to proceed.
The committee gave the proposal its nod after a long debate.
Funding moved forward once the director's nod came through.
Similarapproval, go-ahead, permission, consent, blessing
Oppositerefusal, veto
Note
Approval of the go-ahead kind, usually from someone with authority, as when a plan gets the nod from councillors. The common frames are get, receive or give the nod. In 1964, Modern Railways asked whether the BRB had received 'a secret nod from the Ministry'. Because the word keeps a trace of the silent gesture, a nod can be quiet or unofficial as well as formal.
9
verbtransitive or intransitive
To sway or rock gently up and down.
The heavy blossoms nodded under the weight of the rain.
Wildflowers nod along the hillside as gusts pass over them.
Similarsway, bob, bow, dip
Note
Here the bobbing head belongs to something else, such as a tree or a flower. The Romantic poets let the wind do the nodding and gave the verb an object. Keats's Endymion (1818) has 'every wind that nods the mountain pine', and in Wordsworth's On Seeing a Tuft of Snowdrops in a Storm (1819) the flowers 'nod their helmets'. Used with the wind as its subject, the verb has a distinctly poetic ring.
10
verbtransitive or intransitive
To strike the ball with the head, as in soccer.
The striker nodded the cross into the bottom corner.
Tall defenders nod confidently under pressure from corners.
Similarhead
Note
A soccer reporter's verb for heading the ball. It can take an object, as in 'Jones nods the ball back to his goalkeeper', or stand without one. In Chris Whyatt's 2010 BBC report on Chelsea 1–0 Bolton, Davies 'brilliantly nodded into the path of Elmander'. Head is the neutral word, while nod carries some of the gesture's lightness and suits a cushioned pass or a flick into a teammate's path.

11
verbintransitive
To make an error through a momentary lapse of attention or tiredness.
Experienced editors sometimes nod and let an error slip through.
She nodded briefly and made a careless slip in the calculation.
Similarslip, err, blunder
Note
A sense carried mostly by a proverb: even Homer nods, meaning that the greatest master slips now and then. The picture is of a drowsy head dropping for a moment, so the mistake comes from a lapse of attention, not from ignorance. Use it of skilled people making uncharacteristic errors. Applied to a beginner's blunder, the proverb loses its point.
12
nouncountable
A nomination, especially for an award or position.
The young striker got the nod for the national squad.
Three of her songs earned nods at the music awards.
Similarnomination, selection
Note
Headline English for being shortlisted, with the award's name placed in front: a Grammy nod, or 'the ol' Tony nod' in the sitcom Allen Gregory (2011). The word is brisk and casual, and it stops short of winning. Someone can collect five nods and still be waiting for the award itself.
13
nouncountable
A state of half-consciousness or drowsy stupor.
After the long shift, he drifted into a heavy nod at his desk.
The medication left her floating in a half-aware nod for hours.
Similarstupor, doze, daze
Note
The noun that goes with the opiate sense of the verb. A nod here is a spell of stupor, and it can be counted: in 1988 Wickie Stamps wrote of addicts who 'drooped into chronic heroin nods'. The word can describe any heavy, half-aware drowse, but its drug associations are strong enough to color most uses.
14
verbslangintransitive
To drift into sleep under the influence of opiates.
Users often nod within minutes of a heavy dose.
He nodded in the corner, barely able to keep his eyes open.
Note
Drug-culture slang, and a word to use with care. Here the drowsiness is chemical: the heavy, half-awake sedation that follows a dose of opiates. Context usually decides which meaning is intended. Nodding in a dull lecture is ordinary dozing off, but a user who nods after a dose is doing something quite different. The noun the opiate stupor carries the same associations.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English nodden, probably from an unrecorded Old English *hnodian ("to nod, shake the head"), going back through Proto-Germanic *hnudōną ("to beat, rivet, pound, push") to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to scratch or rub." It is related to Old High German hnotōn ("to shake") and Icelandic hnjóða ("to rivet, clinch").