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Glite Dictionary
wet snout

wet snout

1 4.1
A wet nose on an animal, often a dog, that feels cool and damp
  • noun
translation icon : hocico húmedo
  • The bear sniffs at Anne Marie with its big wet snout.

Examples

  • The dog nudged my hand with its wet snout, asking for a treat.

  • As I crouched down to pet him, his wet snout pressed against my face.

  • The puppy's wet snout was cold against my skin as it licked me affectionately.

Surface Forms

wet snout singular
wet snouts plural

Morphology

wet + snout

The meaning is directly compositional: the adjective 'wet' (moist) modifies 'snout' (the protruding nose of an animal), so 'wet snout' simply describes a moist animal nose. This adjective+noun construction is literal and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Wet snout comes from the simple image of a dog's snout being wet, because dogs lick their nose and it stays damp. Puppies press that cool, damp nose against you and leave a small smudge, so wet snout means 'the moist nose of an animal'.