- turn up one's nose
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a) To make the gesture of raising ones nose, as a sign of scorn, contempt or disgust.
When your turn came, you were carefully collared, and led up to the presence, as if even at that awful moment you were mutinously and murderously disposed. The Pasha, looking at you with a vicious sneer, turned up his nose, ejaculated "Ajami," and prescribed the bastinado.
b) To regard with contempt or scorn, especially in conjunction with the gesture of raising ones nose; to treat with contempt or scorn; to ignore or disregard in a contemptuous or scornful way.Sir Felix, when he read this letter at his club in the afternoon of the Monday, turned up his nose and shook his head. He thought if there were much of that kind of thing to be done, he could not go on with it, even though the marriage was certain, and the money secure. "What an infernal little ass!" he said to himself as he crumpled the letter up.
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