noses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of nose.

   The sculptor carved delicate noses onto each of the marble busts.

   Cold weather left the children's noses red and runny.

   Note

   A plural that does more work than the face alone suggests: noses can be the tips of objects, the bulges on jigsaw pieces, the narrow margins between horses at a finish, even perfumers. In speech it gains a syllable, /ɪz/, because the singular already ends in /z/. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb, as in a tugboat that noses forward, so the surrounding grammar decides which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of nose.

   The tugboat noses the freighter gently toward the dock.

   He noses into everyone's affairs and reports back to the manager.

   Note

   Each meaning of the verb brings its own construction to this form. Used without an object, it means moving front-first or snooping, and it usually takes a preposition: noses forward, noses into. With an object, it covers smelling something out, nuzzling, or beating a rival by a narrow margin. In that last sense out often joins it, as in she noses out her rival at the line.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2