turn up one's nose
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: turns up one's nose
form: turning up one's nose
form: turned up one's nose
form: turned up one's nose
form: turn one's nose up
Etymology: A description of a gesture possibly universally understood as indicating scorn, contempt or disgust.
Already found in Ancient Greek as ἐκμυκτηρίζω (ekmuktērízō, “I hold in derision”), from ἐκ- (ek-) (intensifier with additional senses of out from or of the nature of) and μυκτηρίζω (muktērízō, “I turn up the nose, I sneer at”), from the stem μυκτήρ (muktḗr, “nostril”).
Senses: examples: text: When your turn came, you were carefully collared, and led up to the presence, as if even at that awful moment you were mutinously and murderously disposed. The Pasha, looking at you with a vicious sneer, turned up his nose, ejaculated "'Ajami," and prescribed the bastinado.
ref: 1855, Richard F[rancis] Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. […], volume I (El-Misr), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
text: Sir Felix, when he read this letter at his club in the afternoon of the Monday, turned up his nose and shook his head. He thought if there were much of that kind of thing to be done, he could not go on with it, even though the marriage was certain, and the money secure. "What an infernal little ass!" he said to himself as he crumpled the letter up.
ref: 1875, Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:
text: The actors paused, their arms hanging limply by their sides, while Fontan turned up his nose and asked with a sneer :
'What do you mean? What's not like that?'
ref: 1972, Émile Zola, translated by George Holden, Nana, Penguin Books:
glosses: To make the gesture of raising one's nose, as a sign of scorn, contempt or disgust.
examples: text: But he turned up his nose at their murmuring and stammering,
And cared (shall I say?) not a d—— for their damming;
So they first read him out of their church, and next minute
Turned round and declared he had never been in it.
ref: 1848, James Russell Lowell (initially published anonymously), A Fable for Critics:
text: So Old Cheeseman went on, and didn’t he lead a miserable life! Of course the Reverend turned up his nose at him, and of course she did—because both of them always do that at all the masters—but he suffered from the fellows most, and he suffered from them constantly.
ref: 1853, Charles Dickens, The Schoolboy's Story:
text: Lovely as he was, Satan could be cruelly offensive when he chose; and he always chose when the human race was brought to his attention. He always turned up his nose at it, and never had a kind word for it.
ref: 1916, Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger:
text: ... but the rulers scoffed and sneered (turned up their noses) at Him, saying, He rescued others; let Him now rescue Himself, if He is the Christ (the Messiah) of God, His Chosen One!
ref: 1958, annotated translation based on documents deriving from postulated c.85 Greek text attributed to Luke (ἐξεμυκτήριζον δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες σὺν αὐτοῖς λέγοντες· Ἄλλους ἔσωσε, σωσάτω ἑαυτόν, εἰ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκλεκτός.). Lockman Foundation, The Amplified New Testament, used in 1965 Zondervan Corporation, The Amplified Bible, Luke 23:35
glosses: To regard with contempt or scorn; to treat with contempt or scorn; to ignore or disregard in a contemptuous or scornful way.
raw_tags: with "at"
examples: text: I tried to help, but they turned up their noses at my advice.
text: We listened in profound silence until the conclusion of this harangue, when Captain Guy replied by assuring the chief of his eternal friendship and goodwill, concluding what he had to say be a present of several strings of blue beads and a knife. At the former the monarch, much to our surprise, turned up his nose with some expression of contempt; but the knife gave him the most unlimited satisfaction, and he immediately ordered dinner.
ref: 1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter XIX, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 159–160:
text: Why I recollect, a bit ago, having a tarrier dog what got old and disagreeable, and was turned out on that account from a swell house in Belgravy. Well, he come into my hands, and nat'rally I put him on paunch, like the rest. Would he eat it? Not he. He had been used to his chicken, and his mutton chops, and his 'ashes: and he turned up his nose at anything commoner.
ref: 1881, James Greenwood, Low-Life Deeps:
text: What I want to know is what he gets to eat there. A piece of dried fish now and then--what? That's coming down pretty low for a man who turned up his nose at my table d'hote!
ref: 1915, Joseph Conrad, Victory: An Island Tale:
glosses: To refuse, especially with disgust, contempt or scorn; to refuse with apparent disregard about offending the offerer.
raw_tags: with "at"
Related terms: turn
turn up