nosey parker
1
8.2
- noun
- /ˈnoʊzi ˈpɑrkər/
- UK
:
entrometido
- Ever since she moved in, our neighbor has played the role of nosey parker on our street.
Examples
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Don’t be such a nosey parker—let people solve their problems themselves.
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Don't be such a nosey parker!
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My new colleague is a real nosey parker who always wants to know everyone’s business.
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My neighbor is a real nosey parker.
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Everyone in the office knows that Sarah is a nosey parker who wants to know everyone's business.
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I prefer to keep my relationships private, but my nosey parker neighbor keeps asking personal questions.
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Being a nosey parker, Tom always tried to find out what was happening in other people's lives.
Synonyms
26
7.4
A person who secretly looks for other people's private information
16
7.1
A person who asks too many questions about other people's private lives
3
7.4
A person who secretly tries to find out about other people's private things
2
8.9
A person who wants to know about other people's private lives
1
8.3
A person who asks too many private questions about others
1
9.9
A person who tries to find out and spread gossip about other people's business
A person who tries to find out what other people are doing when it does not concern them
How Nosey
Surface Forms
Morphology
nosey + parker
The overall meaning is directly carried by 'nosey' (intrusively interested), while 'parker' is a rhyming name/filler with no independent semantic contribution in this phrase. A B1 learner who knows 'nosey' can readily infer that a 'nosey parker' is someone overly interested in others, so the expression is transparently compositional.
Etymology
The noun nosey parker probably began as a funny name. One popular story says people pictured someone with a big nose poking into other people's windows, and the common name Parker was added to make it catchy, so the phrase came to mean 'a person who is too interested in other people's private affairs'.