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Nose Out of Joint

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To put one’s nose out of joint is to supplant a person in another’s good graces. To put another person’s nose where yours is now. There is a good French locution, “Lui couper lʹherbe sous le picd.” (In Latin, “Aliquem de jure suo dejicere.”) Sometimes it means to humiliate a conceited person.

“Fearing now least this wench which is brought over hit her should put your nose out the joynt, comming betweene home and you.”—Terence in English (1614).

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Northern Gate of the Sun
Northern Lights
Northern Wagoner (The)
Norval
Norway (Maid of)
Nose
Nose-bag (A)
Nose Literature
Nose Tax (The)
Nose of Wax (A)
Nose Out of Joint
Nosey
Nosnot-Bocai [Bo-ky]
Nostradamus (Michael)
Nostrum
Not
Not at Home
Not Worth a Rap
Not Worth a Rush
Not Worth a Straw
Not Worth Your Salt