"powder one's nose" meaning in English

See powder one's nose in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: powders one's nose [present, singular, third-person], powdering one's nose [participle, present], powdered one's nose [participle, past], powdered one's nose [past]
Etymology: From the lavatory's use as a place to apply makeup. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} powder one's nose (third-person singular simple present powders one's nose, present participle powdering one's nose, simple past and past participle powdered one's nose)
  1. (euphemistic, typically of women) To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc. Tags: euphemistic
    Sense id: en-powder_one's_nose-en-verb-hHIxjw5H Categories (other): English euphemisms, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 73 27
  2. (slang) To snort cocaine or other types of drugs via one's nose. Tags: slang Related terms: powder room, take a powder
    Sense id: en-powder_one's_nose-en-verb-KZyXZumo

Download JSON data for powder one's nose meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the lavatory's use as a place to apply makeup.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "powders one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdering one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdered one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdered one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "powder one's nose (third-person singular simple present powders one's nose, present participle powdering one's nose, simple past and past participle powdered one's nose)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English euphemisms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "73 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'll be right back. I just have to powder my nose.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "C'mon girls; let's go powder our noses.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Deirdre Purcell, Roses After Rain, page 335",
          "text": "\"...Where's the ladies' in this joint? I've to powder me nose.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-powder_one's_nose-en-verb-hHIxjw5H",
      "links": [
        [
          "visit",
          "visit"
        ],
        [
          "lavatory",
          "lavatory"
        ],
        [
          "use",
          "use"
        ],
        [
          "toilet",
          "toilet"
        ],
        [
          "reapply",
          "reapply"
        ],
        [
          "makeup",
          "makeup"
        ],
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "private",
          "private"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "typically of women",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(euphemistic, typically of women) To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "euphemistic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The cokehead couldn't go more than a couple hours without powdering his nose.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman)",
          "text": "Well I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To snort cocaine or other types of drugs via one's nose."
      ],
      "id": "en-powder_one's_nose-en-verb-KZyXZumo",
      "links": [
        [
          "cocaine",
          "cocaine"
        ],
        [
          "drugs",
          "drugs"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) To snort cocaine or other types of drugs via one's nose."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "powder room"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "take a powder"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "powder one's nose"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the lavatory's use as a place to apply makeup.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "powders one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdering one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdered one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "powdered one's nose",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "powder one's nose (third-person singular simple present powders one's nose, present participle powdering one's nose, simple past and past participle powdered one's nose)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "powder room"
    },
    {
      "word": "take a powder"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English euphemisms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'll be right back. I just have to powder my nose.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "C'mon girls; let's go powder our noses.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Deirdre Purcell, Roses After Rain, page 335",
          "text": "\"...Where's the ladies' in this joint? I've to powder me nose.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "visit",
          "visit"
        ],
        [
          "lavatory",
          "lavatory"
        ],
        [
          "use",
          "use"
        ],
        [
          "toilet",
          "toilet"
        ],
        [
          "reapply",
          "reapply"
        ],
        [
          "makeup",
          "makeup"
        ],
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "private",
          "private"
        ],
        [
          "conversation",
          "conversation"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "typically of women",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(euphemistic, typically of women) To visit a lavatory to use a toilet, reapply makeup, (when used of a group of women) engage in private conversation, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "euphemistic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The cokehead couldn't go more than a couple hours without powdering his nose.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman)",
          "text": "Well I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To snort cocaine or other types of drugs via one's nose."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cocaine",
          "cocaine"
        ],
        [
          "drugs",
          "drugs"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) To snort cocaine or other types of drugs via one's nose."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "powder one's nose"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.