nosy

Etymology

From nose + -y.

adj

1. Prying, inquisitive or curious in other’s affairs; tending to snoop or meddle.
   They built tall fences, yet the nosy neighbors always seemed to know everything about them.
2. Having a large or elongated nose.
   "Look at you, a handsome man of thirty, with thick brown hair and a nosy nose and enormous feet and hands that can drive a team of horses or a yoke of oxen or," she hesitated in a brief shyness, and then went on, "a loving wife." 1962, Paul Engle, Golden Child, page 25
   She had the same sort of handsome, square-cut features as Timothy, with the difference that her nose was small and short — it was obvious that Timothy got his thick dark hair, his brown eyes and his nosy nose from his father, that vigorous impresario who had died suddenly of a a heart-attack, his first, two years before the War began. 1971, William Cooper, You want the right frame of reference, page 22
   The problem is particularly acute in caricature when a variety of divergent features is forced into a precarious union, when a "nosy" nose is trying to get along with a hesitant mouth and vigilant eyebrows. 1982, Art Journal - Volumes 42-43, page 322
   Nosy in his looks by the large hooked proboscis, which dominated his face, as well as by character, Ebenezer wanted, perhaps even needed, to know everyone's business. 2005, R. G. Crouch, The Coat: The Origin and Times of Doggett's Famous Wager, page 99

noun

1. (UK, slang) A look at something to satisfy one's curiosity.
   I might wander down to the construction site for a nosy at what they're building.
2. (childish, rare) A nose.
   Alternative form: nosie
   There was a little Rosy, / And she had a little nosy; / And she made a little posy, / All pink and white and green. / And she said, “Little nosy, / Will you smell my little posy? / For of all the flowers that growsy, / Such sweet ones ne’er were seen.” / So she took the little posy, / And she put it to her nosy, / On her little face so rosy, / The flowers for to smell; […] 1890, Laura E[lizabeth] Richards, “Rosy Posy”, in In My Nursery, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, page 174
   It’s this time of year when you’re warm and cozy and white snowflakes fall on your little nosy. 19 December 2004, Mandel Comanda, “[What the holidays mean to me] It’s for family and friends”, in Sunday Courier News, page 140, column 3
   Who’s my little mouse? Whose little nosy is this? Who has the biggest eyesies in Agramstadt? 2011, Miljenko Jergović, chapter IV, in Stephen M. Dickey, transl., Ruta Tannenbaum, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, page 25
   She pretended to pull off his nose and then held her fist in front of Michael’s face, her thumb peeping out between her fingers. ‘There – I’ve got your nose now!’ […] She pressed her thumb onto his little face. ‘Here’s your little nosy, back safe and sound between your rosy cheeks,’ she said. 2013, Jacqueline Wilson, Queenie, Doubleday, page 133

verb

1. (informal, with into) To pry into something.
   My brother always nosies into my diary.