blue-nosed, a.
[blue a. 1.]
Having a blue nose; also (chiefly U.S.) transf. and fig., esp. as a term of disparagement or contempt; spec. priggish, puritanical (cf. blue-nose 4).
| 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. ii, A goodly, blue-nosed, skim'd milk, New-England cheese. 1866 C. H. Smith Bill Arp 87 The blue-nosed Yankees were to pollute our sacred soil the next morning. 1890 Amer. N. & Q. V. 6 Can you tell me why Presbyterians are sometimes called ‘blue-nosed’? 1959 F. Bowers Textual & Lit. Crit. iii. 112 It is an ignorant view..that bibliography acts as a blue-nosed and puritanical censor to take all the joy out of the textual critic's life. 1959 P. H. Johnson Humbler Creation xxxv. 235 Let's not be blue-nosed, but..he's doing it under the rose. |