rum nose
- noun
- Archaic
- His rum nose was a telltale sign of years spent drinking at the local pub.
Examples
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Doctors now know a rum nose can result from rosacea, not just alcohol abuse.
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People used to believe that a rum nose meant someone was a heavy drinker.
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He has a noticeable rum nose from years of drinking.
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Many people associate a rum nose with heavy drinking.
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His rum nose was a clear indication of his long-term alcohol consumption.
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Many people recognize a rum nose as a sign of excessive drinking over the years.
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After many nights of partying, he developed a pronounced rum nose that was hard to ignore.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A large red round nose with small red lines from blood vessels
1
9.9
A large red nose with visible small blood vessels often caused by heavy drinking
A red, swollen nose with small veins you can see after long heavy drinking
A nose that becomes large and red with visible veins from long heavy drinking
A red, swollen nose with small broken veins, often from heavy drinking
An enlarged red nose with visible blood vessels that often comes from heavy drinking
How Red
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward attributive compound: a learner who knows 'rum' (the alcoholic drink) and 'nose' can infer it refers to a nose associated with alcohol. However, the precise clinical image — a reddish, enlarged nose with visible blood vessels linked to heavy drinking — is a specialized, culture-specific extension not fully predictable from the constituents, so the transparency is partial.
Etymology
Rum nose may come from an old, simple picture: people saw that men who drank a lot of rum often had a red, swollen nose, so the phrase came to mean a nose that shows heavy drinking. That's why rum nose means a reddish, enlarged nose often thought to show a 'heavy drinker'.