▪ I. nostril, n.
(ˈnɒstrɪl)
Forms: α. 1 nosþyrl, -ðyrl, 5 -thirl, 6–7 -thril(l, 7 -threl. β. 1 nosterl, 4–6 -trell(e, 5–7 -trel; 4, 6–7 nostrill, 6 -teril, 7– nostril.
[OE. nosþyrl, f. stem of nosu nose: cf. nose-thirl and OFris. nosterle.]
1. One of the two openings in the nose in man and most vertebrate animals; an opening serving a similar purpose in other forms of animal life.
| α c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 98 Se bræþ on heora nosþyrlum. c 1050 Sax. Leechd. I. 72 (B), Do on þa nosþyrlu. Ibid. 352 Do on þæt nosþyrl. c 1500 Yng. Childr. Bk. in Babees Bk. 25 Wype not thi nose nor þi nos-thirlys. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Naris, the nosthrille. 1597 Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 150 See what a hooke the Lord put in the nosthrils of this barking dogge. 1626 Bacon Sylva §63 When the Spirits, that come to the nosthrils, expell a bad Sent [etc.]. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 95 Vapours..distill..by the nosthrils. |
| β c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 117 Vibrissæ, nosterla hær. Ibid. 157 Pinnulae, uteweard nosterle. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 185 Sponges i-watred and i-holde at hir nostrilles. Ibid. III. 11 Precious stones þat schulde..be i-holde to þe nostrelle of men. 1486 Bk. St. Albans c vij, Castyng wat thorogh her Nostrellis or hir nares. 1535 Coverdale Job xxvii. 3 As longe as the wynde..is in my nostrels. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. ¶iij, My nostrells [were fed] with most comfortable sauours. 1586 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. iv. 8 And blow the morning from their nosterils. 1607 Dekker & Marston Northw. Hoe v. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 67 Out of my nostrils, tapster, thou smelst like Guild-hall two daies after Simon and Jude. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 280 So sented the grim Feature, and upturn'd His Nostril wide into the murkie Air. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 35 ¶2 To supply his weak Brain with Powder at the nearest Place of Access, viz. the Nostrils. 1777 Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. v. 54 Could we have had any idea..of smell without the nostrils, and the olfactory nerves? 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 36 His nostrils, more complicated than those of the monkey, are less so than those of all other genera. 1877 Bryant Odyss. v. 548 The brine gushed forth From mouth and nostrils. |
| transf. 1854 Brewster More Worlds iii. 39 The lofty peak with its cap of ice or its nostrils of fire. |
b. fig. with reference to persons.
| 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 54 An imposition which I cannot beleeve how he that..is but of a sensible nostrill should be able to endure. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 110 That makes Religion to stink in the nostrills of many. 1771 Burke Middlesex Election Wks. X. 65 Our judgments stink in the nostrils of the people. 1844 Emerson Nature Wks. (Bohn) II. 231 There is no end..so sacred or so large, that, if pursued for itself, will not at last become carrion and an offence to the nostril. 1887 Lowell Democracy 78 Its moral nostrils were of an equally masculine temper. |
c. techn. in smelting (see quot.).
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 825 Below this narrow part, eight holes..are perforated obliquely through the substance of the trompe, called the vent-holes or nostrils, for admitting the air, which the water carries with it in its descent. |
2. attrib., as † nostril(s)-dropping (see quot.); nostril-piece, a part between the nose and lip of an insect, supposed to correspond to the nostrils of quadrupeds.
| 1708 Kersey, Nostrils-Dropping [1726 Bailey, Nostril], a Distemper in Cattel. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxxiv. III. 481 A part of the nose [sc. of an insect]..which I have..named the Rhinarium or nostril-piece. |
Hence noˈstrility, prominence of nostril. rare.
| 1885 J. Jacobs in Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. XV. 54 It is not alone this ‘nostrility’ which makes a Jewish face so easily recognizable. 1899 ― in Pop. Sci. Monthly LV. 510 Jewish ‘nostrility’, as I have termed it,..can not be affected by change of environment. |
▪ II. nostril, v.
(ˈnɒstrɪl)
[f. the n.]
To look like or function as a nostril; to inhale or exhale through one's nose. So ˈnostrilled ppl. a., having nostrils, freq. of a particular kind.
The transf. use in quot. 1942 is unusual.
| 1909 Athenæum 31 July 125/1 The characteristically Irish ‘nostrilled’ portraits of the four Evangelists. 1939 E. Hemingway Fifth Column 131 His outstretched, wide-nostrilled muzzle. 1942 A. L. Rowse Cornish Childhood (1943) 36 The blue summer sea curling round the ships of those emigrant miners, the water nostrilling the stem. 1971 A. Hunter Gently at Gallop v. 49 He was smoking a small, sooty briar... He nostrilled a couple of wisps of smoke. |