ˈblue-nose
(Chiefly in U.S.)
1. A purplish potato grown in Nova Scotia.
| 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. 1861 Illustr. Lond. News 15 Jan. 564. |
2. a. A nick-name for a native of Nova Scotia.
| 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) Pref. 7 When blue⁓nose hears that, he thinks he's got a bargain. 1842 United Serv. Mag. ii. 328 Of the nation of Bluenoses. |
b. A Canadian, esp. Nova Scotian, ship.
| 1889 in Cent. Dict. 1899 Daily News 2 Dec. 6/4 For sheer brutality commend me to the life on board a ‘Bluenose’, as we call the Canadian whalers. 1949 Lawson & Sweet Our New Brunswick Story 229 In those old days all the ships of the Maritime Provinces were known among sailors the world over as Bluenoses. |
3. A kind of clam shell-fish.
| 1883 Leisure Hour 252/1 The coarsest is the mud clam, or blue nose. |
4. A person who is excessively puritanical. Also attrib. U.S.
| 1927 H. C. Brown In Golden Nineties v. 187 With a lot of blue noses on the Board,..this concession was not secured without great diplomacy. 1929 Variety 3 Apr. 11/4 That this picture may aggravate blue nose censors is not beyond the bounds of possibility. 1945 Chicago Daily News 2 Aug. 10/7 Our bluenoses are doing a grave injury to the men serving overseas, who have got the impression that married women are running wild. |