Look Down Your Nose

Also: look down on

Meaning of Idiom ‘Look Down Your (or one’s) Nose’

To look down your nose at something or someone means to consider them inferior or of little value or importance; to regard someone with condescension or contempt. 1Bengelsdorf, Peter. Idioms in the News – 1,000 Phrases, Real Examples. N.p.: Amz Digital Services, 2012.,2Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Usage Notes

Although to look down on and look down one’s nose are interchangeable, the latter tends to be used in regards to more specific situations, rather than general contempt.

Examples Of Use

“All the holier than thou church ladies looked down their noses at Mary’s dress as she sat down in the pew.”

“Don’t look down your nose at me for eating a burger. You’ve been a vegetarian for two days!”

“She spent her life looking down on people who have to work for a living.”

“Can you believe Madison? Ever since he got promoted to a supervisor he walks around looking down his nose at all us minions. We used to have beers together every Friday night!”

“The senator looks down on struggling Americans, saying he doesn’t want to foster a hand-out mentality.”

“The doctor looked down his nose at the newly arriving medical students.”

Origin

This idiom alludes to turning up one’s nose so that one has to ‘look down it’ to see someone or something, a head position that shows contempt or superiority. It has been used since the late 1800s. Look down on is earlier, dating from about 1700.

Here is an early example, from 1899:

Why, if you ventured to offer any observation outside the province of wine, or foxes, they—they looked down their noses! — The Minx by Mrs. Mannington Caffyn 4Bengelsdorf, Peter. Idioms in the News – 1,000 Phrases, Real Examples. N.p.: Amz Digital Services, 2012.