nose

noun

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.”

   “Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.”

4. The bulge on the side of a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, that fits into the hole of its adjacent piece.
5. The 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. (idiomatic)Bouquet, the smell of something, especially wine.
9. The skill in recognising bouquet.

   “It is essential that a winetaster develops a good nose.”

10. (broadly)Skill at finding information.

    “A successful tabloid reporter has a nose for gossip.”

    “I got to know one or two other girls who wrote, and they told me that my sort of stuff would be all right when I got into the peerage or became a leading lady, but if I wanted to live meanwhile it was absolutely necessary to cultivate a "news-nose".”

11. (also, idiomatic)The action of nosing, in the sense to snoop

    “They had a nose around the abandoned property.”

12. A downward projection from a cornice.
13. (slang)An informer.

    “[…] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; […]”

verb

1. (intransitive)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. (also, ambitransitive, idiomatic, intransitive)To snoop.

   “She was nosing around other people’s business.”

3. (transitive)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[.]”

   “Real connoisseurs know that to nose and taste properly you have to add still water to your tulip-shaped glass so that the alcohol doesn't overwhelm you.”

4. (transitive)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. (transitive)To defeat (as in a race or other contest) by a narrow margin; sometimes with out.
6. (transitive)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. (transitive)To furnish with a nose.

   “to nose a stair tread”

8. (transitive)To confront; be closely face to face or opposite to.
9. (intransitive)To dive down in a steep angle; to nosedive
10. (intransitive)To travel with the nose of the plane/ship aimed in a particular direction.

    “The plane is nosing up!”

    “We have to get it nosing down.”