snout

[snout]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR snout ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the part of an animal's head projecting forward and containing the nose and jaws; muzzle.

Entomology. an anterior prolongation of the head bearing the mouth parts, as in snout beetles.

anything that resembles or suggests an animal's snout in shape, function, etc.

a nozzle or spout.

a person's nose, especially when large or prominent.

Origin of snout

1175–1225; Middle English snute; cognate with Dutch snuite, German Schnauze

Related formssnout·ed, adjectivesnout·less, adjectivesnout·like, adjectiveun·snout·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for snout

muzzle, trunk, beak, nozzle, proboscis, spout, rostrum

Examples from the Web for snout

Historical Examples of snout

They noticed a great gaping wound as if done by a sword-cut on his snout.
Japanese Fairy World
William Elliot Griffis
Protected by no bony structure the snout of the monster was amputated.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930
Various
They only allow the end of the snout, or at most the head, to appear.
The Industries of Animals
Frdric Houssay
He had his snout thrust out, and was "sniffing" at a great rate.
Phil Bradley's Mountain Boys
Silas K. Boone
Pterygium: a lateral expansion of the snout of some Coleoptera.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology
John. B. Smith

British Dictionary definitions for snout

snout

noun

the part of the head of a vertebrate, esp a mammal, consisting of the nose, jaws, and surrounding region, esp when elongated

the corresponding part of the head of such insects as weevils

anything projecting like a snout, such as a nozzle or the lower end of a glacier

slang a person's nose

Also called: snout moth a brownish noctuid moth, Hypena proboscidalis, that frequents nettles: named from the palps that project prominently from the head at rest

British slang a cigarette or tobacco

slang an informer

Derived Formssnouted, adjectivesnoutless, adjectivesnoutlike, adjective

Word Origin for snout

C13: of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse snyta, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch snūte

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

Word Origin and History for snout

early 13c., "trunk or projecting nose of an animal," from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch snute "snout," from Proto-Germanic *snut- (cf. German Schnauze, Norwegian snut, Danish snude "snout"), which Watkins traces to a hypothetical Germanic root *snu- forming words having to do with the nose, imitative of a sudden drawing of breath (cf. Old English gesnot "nasal mucus;" German schnauben "pant, puff, snort" (Austrian dialect), schnaufen "breathe heavily, pant," Schnupfen "cold in the head"). Of other animals and (contemptuously) of humans from c.1300.