nose count
- noun
- US
:
conteo de personas
- To gauge support for the proposal, the committee performed a nose count among the attendees.
Examples
-
The last nose count put us 18 votes short.
Fiction book (1995) -
The teacher conducted a nose count to see how many students were present for the field trip.
-
Before starting the meeting, we did a quick nose count to ensure everyone was in attendance.
Synonyms
780
1.0
The number of things or people that have been counted
64
2.0
The number of people present at an event
17
3.4
The number of people present in a group or at an event
6
3.4
The number of people present in a group, company, or event
Counting how many people are in a group or place
How Accurate
Surface Forms
Morphology
nose + count
The meaning 'an act of counting people' is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'nose' (a body part representing individuals) with 'count' (to tally). This compositional logic (counting a visible body feature to count people), similar to 'head count' and attested cross-linguistically, makes the expression immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Nose count comes from the picture of someone counting people's noses to see who is present at a meeting or event. So, a nose count means 'to check how many people are there or who supports an idea'.