ˈsnub-nosed, a.
[f. as prec.]
1. a. Having a snub nose.
| 1725 Bailey Erasm. Colloq. (1878) I. 44 Can you fancy that..Snub-nos'd, Sparrow-mouth'd, Paunch-belly'd Creature? 1758 Ann. Reg., Poetry 439 A snub-nos'd dog to fat inclin'd. 1775 Sheridan Duenna ii. ii, I was taught to believe you a little black, snub-nosed fellow. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 187 The lieutenant, who was a little snub-nosed man, with a pimply face. 1882 Macm. Mag. XLVI. 126 The snub-nosed effigy on his coins. |
b. In specific names (see quots.).
| c 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. II. 255 The Short-headed Whale, or Snub-nosed Cachalot. 1884 Coues N. Amer. Birds 807 Simorhynchus cristatellus,..Snub-nosed Auk. 1891 Cent. Dict. s.v. Simenchelys, S. parasiticus, the only species, is known as the pug-nosed or snub-nosed eel. |
2. fig. Stumpy; short and broad at the front; abbreviated.
| 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby i. 9 A snub-nosed motor-boat..bumped the tide offshore. 1961 E. S. Gardner in Webster s.v., A snub-nosed revolver. 1963 Times 5 Feb. 7/5 These snub-nosed,..two-stroke machines. 1966 P. O'Donnell Sabre-Tooth x. 137 A Smith & Wesson Centennial, a snub-nosed hammerless revolver. 1978 S. Sheldon Bloodline l. 405 Others carried snub-nosed tear gas rifles. |
Hence ˈsnub-ˌnosedness.
| 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 228 The snubnosedness of Theaetetus..is characteristic both of him and Socrates. |