nozzle
Americannoun
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a projecting spout, terminal discharging pipe, or the like, as of a hose or bellows.
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Slang. the nose.
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the spout of a teapot.
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the socket of a candlestick.
noun
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a projecting pipe or spout from which fluid is discharged
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Also called: propelling nozzle. a pipe or duct, esp in a jet engine or rocket, that directs the effluent and accelerates or diffuses the flow to generate thrust
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a socket, such as the part of a candlestick that holds the candle
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nozzle
Explanation
A nozzle is the spout at the end of a hose that water flows through. Any kind of fluid — oil, gasoline — can move through a tube and squirt out of a nozzle, but we usually think of water in a hose, with the nozzle controlling the spray. The root of nozzle is nose, which — if you use a little imagination — describes the shape of most nozzles.
Vocabulary lists containing nozzle
100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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When You Reach Me
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Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It can look down and spray a nozzle when the sensors pick a weed, while we're going around 15 miles an hour," Leguee says.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
And, finally, to create a further barrier for germs, he suggests directing the air nozzle between you and the person next to you.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
HITS-Bio uses a digitally controlled nozzle array, an arrangement of multiple nozzles that moves in three dimensions and allows researchers to manipulate several spheroids at the same time.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2024
Like water spraying through a narrow nozzle, the winds are accelerated as they enter the canyons, often reaching gale-force strength by the time they exit into Los Angeles and San Bernardino.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2024
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
The technology’s hoses and nozzles can pump out ozone in microscopic nanobubbles that don’t float and can spread more widely through water than the gas’s traditional form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
One is replacing the fuel nozzles to utilize natural gas instead of jet fuel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
He adds that he saves on pesticide spray since the nozzles only turn on when weeds are detected, as opposed to the kind of blanket spraying he used to do.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
As droplets shake loose, they fall through the nozzles into collection containers placed above and below the vibrating ring.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2025
I got a cutting tool and put it in the special jig he had fashioned for our nozzles.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
