> as lemmas

1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 47 Shee was a shrewish snappish bawd, that wold bite off a mans nose with an answere.

1661 Guy Earl of Warwick i Why Father if you'l not bite off my Nose, Ile tell ye, I promised her to go home and eat a sowre Milk Posset.

1709 S. Centlivre Busie Body i. i. 7 I..ask'd him if he was at leisure for his Chocolate,..but he snap'd my Nose off, No, I shall be busie here these two Hours.

1742 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) II. 166 Old G. snapped my nose off for saying I had sent for him.

1793 C. Smith Old Manor House I. ix. 213 Don't bite one's nose off... Gemini! what a passion you puts yourself into.

1829 M. R. Lacy Two Friends I. ii. 22 There was no occasion to snap my nose off, neither: I repeat, I wished you for my brother-in-law—is there any harm in that?

1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate II. vi. 159 Don't bite my nose off, Frederic, because I am anxious about your wife.

1879 J. Poole Lodgings for Single Gentlemen 10 There is no need to snap one's nose off.

1996 Evening Standard (Nexis) 18 Jan. 32 The manageress bites their noses off while smiling a tight little grin of cold contempt.