dog-nose

From dog +‎ nose.

dog-nose (third-person singular simple present dog-noses, present participle dog-nosing, simple past and past participle dog-nosed)

1. To nose around like a dog, to sniff as if searching
   • 1916 February 5, Anonymous, “Hort Flug Sez”, United States Tobacco Journal Volume 85, No.8, page 17:

     While Colonel John W. Sink, th’ eminent Grand Island cigar manufacturer, was out “dog-nosing” jack rabbits th’ other night, a glee club serenaded his home for two hours without response.

   • 2017 March 17, Trent Michaels, “Nightwood by Djuna Barnes” (book review)

     They come without being called, dog-nosing the air as though they sense a hard surface upon which they can lean or dash their heads.

Folk etymology of diagnose

dog-nose (third-person singular simple present dog-noses, present participle dog-nosing, simple past and past participle dog-nosed)

1. To diagnose
   • 1879, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, An Old Maid’s Paradise, Chatto and Windus, published 1885, page 29:

     And now here she was, wearing upon the delicate health of her hostess ; dependent upon the surgery of a more than rural doctor, who said he had dog-nosed the case ; and reduced entirely to her imagination and the daily mail (it seemed to make everything worse that it was brought five miles by a stage-coach) for any knowledge of her now sacred and absorbing interests at Fairharbor.

   • 1899, Izora Cecilia Chandler, Elvira Hopkins of Tompkin’s Corner, Wilbur B. Ketchan, page 87:

     So I dog-nosed my case, as it were, and proved to her that it was something that couldn’t be reached by boneset tea.

dog-nose (not comparable)

1. Related to a dog’s nose
   • 2011, Toni Johnstone, Dogified: A Poodle's Memoir, Tate Publishing, page 121:

     He would smash his face into the doors at the end of his walks, trying to hasten their opening, and leave his little brown dog-nose smudges at his level.

   • 2011, Amy Fernandez, Maltese, Kennel Club Books, page 72:

     Hang a bell from your doorknob at dog-nose height.

• Goodens, noodges