1662. Rump Songs [Nares]. Alas, what take ye pepper in the nose To see king Charles his colours worne in pose?
1664. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1st ed.), 60. There lies your way, follow your nose.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft, in Wks. (1725), p. 182. Spight of your nose, and will ye, nil ye, I will go home again, that will I.
1693. Wood, Fasti Oxon., ii. Too easy, like a nose of wax, to be turned on that side.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nose. Follow your nose, said in a jeer to those that know not the way, and are bid to smell it out, as we say to smell a post. Ibid. He is led by the nose. Of one that is easily imposed upon. Ibid. As plain as the nose in your face. Ibid. He has a good nose. Of a Smell Feast. Ibid. You make a bridge of his nose. When you pass your next Neighbor in Drinking or one is preferr'd over another's head. Ibid. He holds up his nose, of one that is Haughty, and carries his Head high.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversations, 1. Follow your Nose; go, enquire among the Servants. Ibid. Neverout. Pray, my Lord, don't make a Bridge of my nose. Ibid. Miss. Anything for a quiet life; my nose itch'd, and I knew I should drink wine, or kiss a fool.
1720. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Nose.
d.1745. Swift, To Gay. Nor think yourself secure in doing wrong By telling noses with a party strong.
1731. Windsor Medley, 13. If you follow your nose, you're as sure as a Gun.
1764. O'Hara, Midas, i. 4. Aye, Pol, the hind, put out of joint our noses.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn], 151, s.v. To make a bridge of one's nose. i.e. To intercept one's trencher, cup, or the like; or to offer or pretend to do kindnesses to one, and then pass him by, and do it to another; to lay hold upon and serve himself of that which was intended for another.
1781. Cowper, Truth. . . . With slipshod heels & dewdrop at his nose.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Nose; to put one's nose out of joint, to rival one in the favor of any person. Ibid. To follow one's nose, to go straight forward. Ibid. He is led by the nose, he is governed. Ibid. As plain as the nose on your face, evidently to be seen. Ibid. To make a bridge of anyone's nose, to pass by him in drinking.
1833. Lytton, Godolphin, ii. iii. To find their noses put out of joint by that little mischief-making interloper!
1838. Neal, Charcoal Sketches [De Vere], At all events he had his nose to the grindstone, an operation which should make men keen.
1844. Buckstone, The Maid with Milking Pail. Now my nose is put completely out of joint. No niceties—no pudding—no fresh salt butter—no cabbage soup—no nothing!
1859. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxiii. Lesbia gave herself the airs, and received the privileges of being the handsomest woman in those parts, till Alice came, and put her nose out of joint, for which she never forgave her.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on the Floss, iii., 5. To turn up his nose at his father's customers, and to be a fine gentleman.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, vi. I like to see a fellow an honest grubber at breakfast and dinner; but you've always got your nose in the manger.
1869. Yeats, Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry, 237. From this . . . he kept Bill's nose to the grinding-stone.
1870. Figaro, 26 Oct. The Prussians, to whom an immediate supply of these is necessary, have to pay what is vulgarly called through the nose.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 620, s.v. Nose to the grindstone, a very expressive phrase, denoting the ill-treatment received at the hands of a successful adversary who takes full advantage of his triumph.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery under Arms, xxiii. These sort of men pay through the nose for everything.
Nose-and-chin, subs, phr (rhyming).—A
penny: a win (q.v.).
