Thumbing one's nose, also known as cocking a snook, is a sign of derision, disrespect, contempt, or defiance, made by putting the
thumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...
on the nose, holding the palm open and perpendicular to the face, and wiggling the remaining fingers.
It is used mostly by schoolchildren. It is also known as ''thumbing the nose'', ''Anne's Fan'' or ''
Queen Anne's Fan''.
["The British also call it "Queen Anne's fan" because it became popular during her reign, of 1702-1714." ''Cocking a snook at a bender'', Chris Lloyd for ]The Northern Echo
''The Northern Echo'' is a regional daily morning newspaper based in the town of Darlington in North East England, serving mainly southern County Durham and northern Yorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its the ...
, Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...
6 Sep 2018
accessed 11 Oct 2021.
The phrase "cocking a snook" can be used figuratively: the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' cites a 1938 usage "The
Rome–Berlin axis
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Germany, Kingdom of Italy ...
...cocked the biggest snook yet at the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
idea" by
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 23 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books ...
in his ''
Cause for Alarm''.
See also
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I've got your nose
*
Mooning
Illustration of a woman raising her dress and mooning a nun (1905)
Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, and also pot ...
*
Reverse V sign
*
The finger
"The finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, flipping the bird or flipping someone off) is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent in meaning t ...
References
Hand gestures
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