Meaning
To eat a snack or nibble between meals, or the snack itself; in British English the noun has broadened to mean food in general ('grab some nosh'). The register is casual in both American and British use, and the word carries no stronger flavor than 'snack'. Casual and friendly; in Britain 'nosh' is an everyday word for food generally, while American use centers on snacking. Regional use: General English (borrowed from Yiddish); the noun is especially common in British English.
Origin
From Yiddish nashn 'to nibble', which descends from Middle High German naschen 'to eat on the sly' and ultimately from Old High German nascon 'to nibble'. The word crossed into English through Yiddish-speaking immigrant communities in the United States and Britain. Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1873 and the verb to 1892, while the Online Etymology Dictionary's files date the modern verb sense 'to snack between meals' to 1957 - evidence that the word circulated in speech for decades before dictionaries fully caught up with it.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- nosh-up
- nosher
- noshing
Usage Examples
- There is a plate of cheese and crackers in the kitchen if you want something to nosh on before dinner.
- She kept a drawer of almonds and dried fruit at her desk for a quiet afternoon nosh.
- After the charity walk, the volunteers lined up for some serious nosh at the community hall.