Meaning
To pay an extremely high or excessive price for something; to be charged far more than it is worth. Usually said with irritation or resignation about a transaction the speaker felt unable to refuse or avoid. Informal; conveys resentment at being overcharged or cornered. Regional use: General English.
Origin
First recorded in the 1660s in the Italian-teaching works of Giovanni Torriano: Wordorigins dates it to 1662 in his phrasebook The Second Alphabet, where it appears three times as an English equivalent of Italian sayings, while Word Histories cites his 1666 proverb collection Piazza universale di proverbi Italiani, and Andrew Marvell used it in 1672. The underlying metaphor is unknown. The best-documented suggestion connects it to the slightly earlier 'to bore someone through the nose', meaning to gull or utterly deceive, the image being a victim led like a haltered beast and so easily cheated of money. The popular story of a Viking 'nose tax', with noses slit of those unable to pay, is folk etymology: no evidence supports such a practice, and a phrase coined in the eighth or ninth century would have left traces during the intervening centuries.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- paid through the nose
- pay through the nose for something
- paying through the nose
Usage Examples
- Commuters without a season ticket pay through the nose for peak-hour fares.
- We paid through the nose for the last-minute flights, but at least we made the wedding.
- Tenants in the harbor district pay through the nose for flats that would fail inspection anywhere else.