nose out

English

Verb

nose out (third-person singular simple present noses out, present participle nosing out, simple past and past participle nosed out)

(transitive, informal) To find using one's sense of smell.
- 2011 September 12, Yogesh Avasthi, “It’s a dog’s life for railway sniffers”, in Ahmedabad Mirror‎^[1]:
  Trained to nose out anything from a hidden handgun to a cache of dynamite, the dogs are employed to check important trains like Rajdhani Express or Ashram Express when they arrive at the platform.
- 1837, Charles F. Partington, The british cyclopedia of natural history:
  In the second place, do sharks really follow ships, when there are corpses on board, more than they do at other times ? and if so, by what particular organisation does a fish in the water continue to nose out the particular origin and direction of an effluvium...
(transitive, informal, figuratively) To find by searching.
(transitive, informal) To defeat by a small margin.
- 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post‎^[2]:
  We were nosed out for the pennant that year,
- 2011 September 3, Ron Gierkink, “Atlantic Hurricane beats Embur's Song”, in ESPN‎^[3]:
  Rashnaa nosed out Amiable Grace to finish a distant third in a field reduced to seven after the scratches of Comic Marvel and Dance to the Moon...

Synonyms

(find by sense of smell): sniff out
(find by searching): sniff out
(defeat by a small margin): edge out