NOSTRIL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Nostril

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/nˈɑstrɪl/ Listen

noun

Nostril n.

(Anat.) One of the external openings of the nose, which give passage to the air breathed and to secretions from the nose and eyes; one of the anterior nares. Note: In sperm whales, porpoises, and allied animals, there is only one nostril, which is situated on the top of the head and called a spiracle.

Perception; insight; acuteness. (Obs.) "Methinks a man Of your sagacity and clear nostril should Have made another choice."

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Etymology of 'Nostril'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nostril" Quotes from Famous Books

... not help glancing at the two giants, expecting to see some involuntary quiver of eye or nostril answer electrically to this frank revelation of their office; but their countenances (impossible to think of as mere faces) remained expressionless as if carved in stone. Lady MacGregor took nothing from Mohammed and the other Kabyle servant who waited on Nevill and Stephen. Everything for her ...

— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... pretty hand grow suddenly cold in his grasp, and saw the thin delicate nostril expand slightly, as she fixed her brilliant eyes on his, and smiled. Then ...

— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... crowned victims to the altar led Sink, and prevent the lifted blow: The generous horse from the full manger turns his head, Does his loved floods and pastures scorn, Hates the shrill trumpet and the horn, Nor can his lifeless nostril please With the once-ravishing smell of all his dappled mistresses; The starving sheep refuse to feed, They bleat their innocent souls out into air; The faithful dogs lie gasping by them there; The astonished shepherd weeps, and ...

— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... conveyal of air to the lungs, and she trains her infant to close its little lips and breathe through the nose. She tips its head forward when it is asleep, which attitude closes the lips and makes nostril-breathing imperative. If our civilized mothers were to adopt the same plan, it would work a ...

— The Hindu-Yogi Science Of Breath • Yogi Ramacharaka

... top spur he slides down. Jacky Caffrey clasps to climb. The navvy lurches against the lamp. The twins scuttle off in the dark. The navvy, swaying, presses a forefinger against a wing of his nose and ejects from the farther nostril a long liquid jet of snot. Shouldering the lamp he staggers away through the crowd ...

— Ulysses • James Joyce

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