Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to tickle someone's nose

to tickle someone's nose

4.3
To make a person's nose feel slightly itchy so they want to sneeze
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : hacer cosquillas en la nariz
  • The feather floated down and tickled my nose unexpectedly.

Examples

  • The creature reached down to tickle Kitten's nose.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The cat playfully tried to tickle the dog's nose with its paw.

  • She blew gently to tickle her friend's nose, making him laugh.

Antonyms

to soothe
63 3.4

To make someone feel calmer or reduce their pain

Surface Forms

tickle someone's nose infinitive
tickled someone's nose past
tickled someone's nose past participle
tickling someone's nose present participle
tickles someone's nose third person singular

Morphology

tickle + someone's + nose

The phrase combines the transparent verb 'tickle' (to touch lightly) with the concrete body part 'nose', so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer it means causing a light tingling in someone's nose, often prompting a sneeze. This is a literal, compositional verb + object construction common across languages, making the meaning immediately predictable.

Etymology

Tickle someone's nose comes from the simple image of something light touching the inside of the nose and making it feel like a tickle. So it means 'to make someone's nose feel tingly and make them want to sneeze'.