- a variation of nosy.
nosey
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does nosey mean? Nosey is used to describe someone who asks too many questions about or otherwise prys into other people’s business because they are overly curious about it. It’s especially used to describe someone who does this all the time. Nosey is more commonly spelled nosy. The related phrasal verbs nose in and stick one’s nose in mean to get into other people’s business—to pry or snoop. People who are considered nosey are known for prying, snooping, asking overly personal questions, eavesdropping (listening to other people’s conversations), and generally nosing into other people’s business. Nosey can also be used to describe such a person’s behavior and the kinds of questions they ask, as in I ignored all of his nosey questions about my medical history. Although the term implies a lack of respect for other people’s privacy, calling someone nosey is usually only mildly negative and is often somewhat playful. It’s not usually used in situations that involve serious or harmful violations of privacy. The word is sometimes used to address or refer to someone as a way of saying that they are nosey, as in Hey, nosey, quit looking in my notebook. Example: My neighbor is as nosey as they get—she always asks where I’m going when I leave and where I’ve been when I get back!
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:
Before you visit the Google Play or Apple App Store again, there are a few things to keep in mind to keep nosey and dangerous downloads off your phone.
From Fox News ● Dec. 18, 2021
Kevin Phillips said that when trouble broke out on 9 August 1971 his brother was "doing what kids do, you would go for a nosey that's all he was doing".
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2021
A widow, her new suitor and her nosey neighbor walk into a whodunit in the four-part mystery “Flesh and Blood” on “Masterpiece.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2020
A simple response that my husband and I have found helpful when dealing with nosey parkers is: “Why do you need to know?”
From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2019
I recalled what Miig used to tell me when I’d first come, when I was nosey enough to ask unwelcome questions and had tried to pry into the contents of that bag.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
Had Bob Crimo been nosier, he might have discovered that his quiet son was quite loquacious as his online persona named Awake The Rapper.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022
Once the company’s got it, will Microsoft be tempted to ask for a bigger peek, just as Facebook has gradually gotten nosier with its user data?
From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2016
Someone a little nosier would surely have pressed the exiled National Security Agency leaker on what he held back.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2014
Welcome to the world of real-time bidding, a cleverer and nosier way of selling advertising that is beginning to shake up the online media business.
From Economist ● May 5, 2011
‘Ah-haF cried the BFG, sitting up suddenly in his chair. ‘Now we is getting nosier than a parker!’
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
Ms. Shepard — a journalist who proudly described herself as “the nosiest person I know” — spent the early years of her career as a general-assignment reporter for the San Jose Mercury News.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
With its plans, the airport will phase out all traffic between midnight and 5 a.m., ban private jets and the nosiest planes and abandon a project for an additional runway.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Taken together, they conjure a detailed portrait of life in West Marin, especially the lives of its unluckiest, and nosiest, citizens.
From Slate ● May 27, 2015
Liverpool, which the King Emperor has known throughout his reign as England's second nosiest city, went down last week before Birmingham which is now the only English city except London with over 1,000.000 population.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mrs. Trent is the nosiest woman on the planet, and it doesn't help that the buildings in my neighborhood are only about fifteen feet apart.
From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements
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.
