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- win by a nose
win by a nose
win by a nose
Fig. to win by the slightest amount of difference. (Can be literal in horses races.) I ran the fastest race I could, but I only won by a nose. Sally won the race, but she only won by a nose.
win by a nose
Also, win by a whisker. Just barely succeed, as in Sally's political cartoon came in first in the contest, but I heard that she won by a nose . This term comes from horseracing, where from about 1900 on it referred to a finish so close that only a portion of the horse's nose reached the finish ahead of the second horse. A whisker-that is, a hair-is a narrower margin yet. [Second half of 1900s]
Common Names:
Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
Artemius | | - | Ancient Greek (Latinized) |
Katalin | | KAWT-aw-leen (Hungarian) | Hungarian, Basque |
Maialen | | - | Basque |
KajetÁN | | - | Czech, Slovak, Hungarian |
Letha | | - | English |
Kalle | | KAHL-le (Finnish) | Swedish, Finnish |