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nozzle

American  
[noz-uhl] / ˈnɒz əl /

noun

  1. a projecting spout, terminal discharging pipe, or the like, as of a hose or bellows.

  2. Slang. the nose.

  3. the spout of a teapot.

  4. the socket of a candlestick.


nozzle British  
/ ˈnɒzəl /

noun

  1. a projecting pipe or spout from which fluid is discharged

  2. 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

  3. a socket, such as the part of a candlestick that holds the candle

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of nozzle

1600–10; earlier nosle; see nose, -le

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.

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Vocabulary lists containing nozzle

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.

In one graphic, a smiling father and son wash a car over a headline that reads, “Make Every Drop Count: Use a Self-Closing Hose Nozzle When Watering Outdoors.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2022

They do so in agreeable places, “for the same reason that the American Association of Hose and Nozzle Manufacturers has to hold all its important meetings in Las Vegas,” observed Mr O’Rourke, a humorist.

From Economist • May 17, 2012

Nozzle Sizes.—The size of opening through the nozzle is determined according to the thickness and kind of metal being handled.

From Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting Electric, Forge and Thermit Welding together with related methods and materials used in metal working and the oxygen process for removal of carbon by Manly, Harold P. (Harold Phillips)

Nozzle, noz′l, n. a little nose: the snout: the extremity of anything: the open end of a pipe or tube, as of a bellows, &c.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

The Nozzle is a 1-1/2 inch piece of brass bar.

From Things To Make by Williams, Archibald

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