Meaning
Offended, resentful, or sulky because someone has displaced you in another person's favour, affection, or esteem. Usually said of a rival who has been supplanted, as when a firstborn child feels sidelined by a new baby, and most often appears in the construction to put someone's nose out of joint. Informal and slightly humorous; usually describes wounded pride or petty jealousy rather than serious grievance. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The earliest known use is Barnabe Riche's Farewell to Militarie Profession (1581): 'It could bee no other then his owne manne, that had thrust his nose so farre out of ioynte.' Both the Online Etymology Dictionary and The Phrase Finder cite this 1581 passage, and the supplanted-rival sense was present from the start. The image transfers the language of a dislocated bone to the most prominent feature of the face: having the nose thrust out of joint pictures the indignity of being pushed aside, and joints 'out of joint' were a familiar biblical and medical way of describing pain and disorder (compare 'the time is out of joint' in Hamlet). Why the nose was chosen is not documented; the colourful theory that it depicts two faces pressed together with a third butting in is a modern guess without early evidence, so the underlying rationale is best treated as unknown.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- get one's nose out of joint
- have one's nose out of joint
- put someone's nose out of joint
- someone's nose is out of joint
Usage Examples
- Marisol's nose was out of joint for weeks after the board gave her project to the new analyst.
- Don't put Grandpa's nose out of joint by seating him at the far end of the table.
- The deputy had his nose put out of joint when the campaign hired an outside strategist above him.