by a nose
5
4.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
por un pelo
- It was a tight race but I won by a nose.
- won by a nose
- beat him by a nose
- edged out by a nose
Examples
-
Orange and Green, and Orange takes it by a nose!
-
Go For Broke got up by a nose, and I was sure Jay had the Exacta, which paid over two hundred dollars for every five-dollar P94 ticket.
Fiction book (1990) -
And it's Buddy Hall by a nose!
-
And Blue Note wins it by a nose!
-
I think she'll lose by a nose.
-
He lost by a nose.
-
The jockey on the other horse misjudged the finish line, and we won by a nose.
Blog text (18) -
The Nook nudges ahead of the Kindle a bit in software, but just by a nose.
Blog text (28) -
From there, the two battled towards the finish line where Gentildonna was able to hold off the Japanese Triple Crown winner and 2011 Horse of the Year by a nose.
Blog text (7) -
In the final moments of the race, he crossed the finish line by a nose.
Synonyms
6
3.6
A very small difference between two amounts or scores
1
7.6
Very close and almost not enough to win or pass
Antonyms
How Big
- Informal
9
3.8
- UK
1
3.0
- Informal
9
4.1
- Informal
5
4.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
by + a + nose
The sense 'by a very small margin' is directly inferable from combining 'by' (marking difference or extent) with 'nose' (a small physical distance), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably deduce the intended small-margin meaning. This construction is also mirrored in many languages with similar bodily-part metaphors for tiny margins, supporting a transparent judgment.
Etymology
By a nose comes from horse racing, where the winner is the horse whose nose reaches the finish line first, even if it is only a little bit ahead. That's why the phrase now means 'by a very small margin' or 'just barely'.