nose about

Idioms

Also, nose around. Look for something, especially something private or hidden. For example, She was always nosing about the kitchen, looking in all the cupboards, or The detective nosed around the apartment. [Second half of 1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Lee Knight’s “A Friend of Dorothy” may be a tad on the nose about the cultural and emotional impact of a lonely London widow on a closeted teenaged boy.

From Los Angeles Times

"He is someone who can be crude and cruel and also incredibly funny and insightful, and very on the nose about the world he lives in," she said.

From BBC

However, some people will simply like having a nose about.

From BBC

I've seen people online saying that those are all conscious nods, and in all honesty, I don't think we would consciously be that on the nose about it.

From Salon

It was Gogol, of course, and not Kafka who wrote the absurdist short story “The Nose,” about a man whose nose leaves his face and takes on a life of its own.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023