▪ I. nosh, n. colloq.
(nɒʃ)
[Yiddish; cf. next word.]
a. A restaurant; a snack-bar. More usually nosh bar, nosh-house.
| 1917 R. Fry Let. 11 May (1972) II. 411 Come with me to Kettners' nosh at 8.0. 1959 C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 154 After a quick bite at a Nosh, and two strong black coffees, I felt up to the ordeal. 1969 I. Drummond Man with Tiny Head i. 21 We're going to your nosh-house. 1970 New Scientist 2 Apr. 5/2 What dishes will they have at the epicurean nosh-houses up west? 1973 Jewish Chron. 2 Feb. 22/4 The quasi-kosher-culture of the nosh bar. 1974 J. Gardner Corner Men viii. 67 Wanted to set up a couple of class nosh houses in the Smoke, here. |
b. Food, a meal. Also nosh-up, a (good) meal.
The more usual sense in the U.K.
| 1963 Daily Mail 15 May 4/1 Why is it that whenever I read anything about freedom from hunger it's accompanied by pictures of people having a nosh-up? 1964 Cherwell 4 Nov. 12 At the unofficial opening..two old ladies were dragged in off the street and given free nosh and free coats. 1968 Punch 14 Feb. 220 I've always found Chinese nosh both cheap and filling. 1968 A. Diment Great Spy Race ii. 19, I like him enough to buy him some alcohol and the occasional cheap nosh. 1970 A. Draper Swansong for Rare Bird ix. 79 Like most birds she didn't want to lose out on a nosh-up. 1972 C. Drummond Death at Bar vi. 159 Burglars go for plain, healthy English nosh. |
c. A snack eaten between meals; a titbit. Chiefly U.S.
| 1965 N.Y. Times 9 Apr. 40 Advertising copy will stress that the company makes everything from ‘soup to nosh’. (A nosh is a snack.) 1968 L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 267 Many delicatessen counters display plates with small slices of salami, or pieces of halvah, with a legend affixed to a toothpick: ‘Have a nosh.’ |
▪ II. nosh, v. colloq.
(nɒʃ)
[Yiddish; cf. G. naschen to nibble, eat on the sly.]
1. a. To nibble, to eat a snack between meals. Chiefly U.S.
| 1957 Observer 3 Nov. 8/5 One eats breakfast or lunch, but one noshes in between. Ibid., ‘Women don't know how to nosh,’ he continued, ‘except chocolate and sweets.’ 1958 I. Brown Words in Our Time 76 Women, the salesman complained, only nosh chocolates and the true nosher is a connoisseur of cheeses at once sharp and ripe. 1968 L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 267 To nosh is to ‘have a little bite to eat before dinner is ready’, or to ‘have a little something between meals’. 1970 Time 12 Oct. 42 The politician, equipped with a trowel and the Fixed Smile, gobs mortar on a cornerstone, or noshes his way along the campaign trail. 1973 Impetus (Toronto) June 44/2 By nightfall, when mosquitoes as large as vampire bats were noshing on my exposed flesh, I had hoed a row and a half. |
b. More generally, to eat; occas., to drink.
The more usual sense in the U.K.
| 1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers ii. 34, I finally bought a quart of grappa... Mrs. Marengo had noshed her half down. 1965 G. Melly Owning Up xiv. 170 After our huge meal, we were forced to refuse although, as Mick said, ‘I'd have noshed the lot if I could have done.’ 1972 Annabel Jan. 8/3 There I sat in my steaming bath, noshing my favourite food. 1972 C. Drummond Death at Bar v. 122 The Sergeant..morosely noshed the veal-and-ham pie. |
2. To practise fellatio (with). coarse slang.
| 1965 Listener 18 Nov. 803/1 Such typical modernisms as snog, nosh, dildo, [etc.]. 1968 [see gamahuche v.]. 1972 B. Rodgers Queens' Vernac. 142 Nosh.., to suck cock. |
Hence ˈnoshable a.; ˈnoshing vbl. n.
| 1957 Observer 3 Nov. 8/5 Noshing—derived from the German verb naschen—is to sample desirable food voluptuously, surreptitiously. 1965 J. P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono i. 12 Too much noshin' and drinkin' the night before. 1965 W. Young Eros Denied xiv. 137 Gamming, from the French gamahucher, or blowing, or plating, or noshing, from the Yiddish nosh, to nibble, or eat between meals. 1966 M. Waddell Otley xi. 114 A particularly noshable repast—chop and peas and potatoes. 1966 Crescendo Nov. 10/1 This saga of happy noshing. |