nose-ringn.
/ˈnəʊzrɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnoʊzˌrɪŋ/ 1. A ring-shaped ornament worn in the nose. Cf. nose-jewel n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > nose and lip ornaments > [noun]
nose-jewel1611
nose-ring1652
nose-ornament1695
lip-piece1796
labret1831
nose-nail1862
lip-ring1866
labretifery1884
lip-plug1894
bullring1992
1652 H. L'Estrange Americans No Iewes 17 The Nose-rings in Easy were onely naso impedentia, hanging down upon the forehead.
1699 R. Wodrow Early Lett. 8 May (1937) 11 Old coins.., some like Indian nose rings.
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 171 They formerly wore nose-rings.
1819 J. Keats Cap & Bells (1848) II. 227 His turban wreath'd of gold,..Mustachios, ear-ring, nose-ring, and his sabre keen.
1839 W. M. Thackeray Major Gahagan i I..carried away Scindiah's nose-ring with a pistol-ball.
1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile xix. 545 The bride..wears a gold brow-pendant and nose-ring.
1910 Man 10 26 A childless Nubian woman on hearing that a woman in the neighbourhood is in labour will put on a gold nose ring and gash her ankle with a razor.
1932 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. Great Brit. & Ireland 62 87 Girls throughout these tribes wear a nose-ring in the right nostril.
1992 Out Summer 63/1 Two or three ‘club kids’ with shaved heads and nose rings dance next to guys in tight slacks doing a line dance.
2. A ring fixed in the nose of a bull or other animal, esp. for the purpose of leading it.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > general equipment > [noun] > nose-ring
ringa1398
staple1688
nose-ring1778
bullring1850
1778 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. Digest 49 Nose rings will reclaim them, be they ever so riotous.
1857 Harper's Mag. Oct. 582/2 The zeman, or nose-ring and cord, with which the Bichariah [sc. camel] is ridden in Egypt, is not in favor among the Arabs, who prefer the simple halter with a running knot.
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge II. vi. 80 The premeditated human contrivance of the nose-ring was too cunning for impulsive brute force, and the creature flinched.
a1976 C. Reznikoff Plough, Sow & Reap in Compl. Poems (1989) 192 An ass with its bundle of wood And a camel with a load of flax and an iron nose-ring Or a horse with bells between its eyes.
2002 Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) (Nexis) 6 Jan. 2 The police added that identifying ear tags and nose rings had been removed from the cows.
Derivatives
ˈnose-ringed adj. having a nose-ring.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > nose and lip ornaments > [adjective] > wearing nose-ring
nose-ringed1835
1835 New-England Mag. Apr. 325 Wyanokee is rather less insipid than the other actors. She is decidedly better than the nose-ringed Queen Aliquippa of Dr. McHenry.
1925 E. Sitwell et al. Poor Young People 7 Like my black Nose-ringed lumbering bear.
1990 Village Voice (N.Y.) 25 Sept. 77/2 The dreadlocked, nose-ringed, Jon Anderson-on-junk-voiced lead singer.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1652