nose about

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To search or investigate in a casual or curious way

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

tìm kiếm hoặc điều tra một cách tự nhiên hoặc tò mò

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: sniff around with one's nose
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She nosed about the antique shop for rare finds

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “nose about” mean?

To search or investigate in a casual or curious way Literally: sniff around with one's nose

Is “nose about” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.