Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small bunch of flowers; a bouquet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bunch of flowers used to regale the sense of smell; a posy; a bouquet.
Wiktionary
- n. A small bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs, tied in a bundle, often presented as a gift on meeting, and originally intended to be put to the nose for the pleasant sensation, or to mask unpleasant odours.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A bunch of odorous and showy flowers; a bouquet; a posy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an arrangement of flowers that is usually given as a present
Etymologies
- nose + gay. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English : nose, nose; see nose + gai, joyous, ornament; see gay. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“November 11, 2005 at 12: 53 pm nosegay is the best word … oh yea, its a real word. it means a small bunch of flowers”
“And, snatching the nosegay from the basket, he flung the flowers as far into the air as he could, exclaiming,”
“I learned that a nosegay is a bouquet of showy flowers.”
“a paper frill round, and call a nosegay or a posy.”
“The "pignus amoris" of the former is a small earthenware vessel in the shape of a book, intended apparently to hold a "nosegay" of flowers.”
“The Californians want Washington to toss a struggling U.S. industry a budgetary nosegay.”
The Wall Street Journal: Trade Fight Has Flower Growers Digging In
“Gilchrist and his heirs would not require the batsman to take a nosegay to the crease and they tend to set the fielding side's tempo by deed more than word, more orchestra conductors than circus ringmasters.”
The Guardian: My glove affair with keepers of the lost stumpers' art
“The Philippines were gathered in as a child gathers a nosegay.”
“In terms of bouquet styles, you have several options: a round hand-tied bouquet (the most popular choice), a cascading bouquet (which “spills” over the base), a teardrop shape (which is a combination of the round and cascading types), and the nosegay (a small cluster of flowers made with one dominant flower or color).”
“It remained the same quantity only then we saw what it was, was happening, under nosegay a screeching nay a barking of beauteous nooks.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nosegay’.
-
phrontistery - n
from phrontistery.info
nacarat, nacelle, nacket, nacre, nacreous, naevus, naiant, nail, nainsook, naissant, nanism, nanization and 340 more...
-
The Nose Knows
Being Nosy.
nosethril, nostril, nebby, nasal, rhinoplasty, pug, button, Roman, turned-up, Pinocchio, Cyrano de Bergerac, Gonzo and 54 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
Amalgamations
Words that have been smashed together.
keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
-
Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, N
nurdled, naumachia, nystagmus, nephology, nigh, noctilucent, noctambulant, nocebo, neap, napiform, nacelle, node and 95 more...
-
Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
-
Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
-
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Words gathered while reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
refectory, soutane, ha-ha, jewelly, girt, centenary, collywobbles, coadjutor, catafalque, beeftea, pierhead, bedad and 235 more...
-
Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
-
Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
-
bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
-
A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
-
lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 889 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nosegay.
super-logos delightfully archaic Aug 13, 2008
brtom For the Poorman's nosegay is an introduction to a Prince. (from Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart) Dec 31, 2007
sonofgroucho Almost always preceded by "fragrant". Oct 3, 2007