on the nose
English · Thesaurus
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on the nose
phrase
-
Exact; precise; appropriate.
His estimate that they would consume 23 boxes was on the nose.
Similar: on the button, on the dot
-
Unimaginative; overliteral; lacking nuance; unsophisticated.
Wearing that floral dress to a garden party was a little on the nose, wouldn't you say?
Similar: heavy-handed · Opposite: nuanced, subtle
- Smelly; malodorous. That bucket of raw prawns you left in the sun is a bit on the nose.
- Being a bet on a horse to finish first. It was three o'clock. They were running the third race at Santa Anita and he had ten bucks on the nose.
- On the lookout.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, nose.
Translations
Every language
prep_phrase exact
| Español | en punto, justo en el clavo |
|---|---|
| Français | pile poil, exact, précisé |
prep_phrase unimaginative; over-literal; lacking nuance
| Español | no / poco sutil / imaginativo, obvio, demasiado literal, sin matiz, carente / faltante de matiz, con carencia / falta de matiz |
|---|
Talk about this word "on the nose." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/on%20the%20nose. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. on the nose. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/on%20the%20nose "on the nose." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/on%20the%20nose.Cite this
@misc{on_the_nose_2026,
title = {on the nose},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/on%20the%20nose},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
