turn up one's nose

• turn one's nose up

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”).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

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turn up one's nose (third-person singular simple present turns up one's nose, present participle turning up one's nose, simple past and past participle turned up one's nose)

1. To make the gesture of raising one's nose, as a sign of scorn, contempt or disgust.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 1875, Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:

     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.

   • 1972, Émile Zola, translated by George Holden, Nana, Penguin Books:

     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?'

2. (idiomatic, with "at") To regard with contempt or scorn; to treat with contempt or scorn; to ignore or disregard in a contemptuous or scornful way.
   • 1848, James Russell Lowell (initially published anonymously), A Fable for Critics:

     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.

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, The Schoolboy's Story:

     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.

   • 1916, Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger:

     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.

   • 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:

     ... 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!

3. (idiomatic, with "at") To refuse, especially with disgust, contempt or scorn; to refuse with apparent disregard about offending the offerer.

   I tried to help, but they turned up their noses at my advice.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1881, James Greenwood, Low-Life Deeps:

     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.

   • 1915, Joseph Conrad, Victory: An Island Tale:

     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!

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• The Amplified Bible (Lockman Foundation, 1958) available at
• Wigram's Englishman's Greek Concordance (George C. Wigram, ed Jay P. Green, Sr. 1839/1903) using numbering from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (James Strong 1890) and Greek Lexicon (Joseph Thayer, 1889) all consulted at Blue Letter Bible "Lexicon and Strong's Concordance Search for 1592" (Blue Letter Bible, 1996-2002) on 14 April 2006
• Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, (W E Vine, 1940) consulted at on 14 April 2006

• turn one's nose up