prodnose

English

Etymology

From the name of a character created by J. B. Morton, from prod +‎ nose; compare stick one's nose in.

Noun

prodnose (plural prodnoses)

1. (slang) Synonym of busybody.
   • 1968, Flann O'Brien, The Best of Myles:

     It would be rash to suppose that the Institute was just a gatherum of clay-minded prodnoses.

   • 1971, John Doxat, The world of drinks and drinking: an international distillation, page 101:

     The fact that the urban populace were enjoying themselves in the "gin palaces" — which also sold much else— incensed the do-gooders, prodnoses and the temperance movement in general, supported by funds largely subscribed by the more puritanical elements among the new plutocracy.

   • 2009, P. Scrivener, English Witness to Their Darkest Hour, page 94:

     There are no words to describe the prodnoses who would stop finance for a boat because not enough “disadvantaged people” are involved.

   • 2015, John Creasey, The Toff and the Lady, →ISBN:

     As I told David when I met him coming out of the house, idle curiosity took me along. So you see I've already an excuse for being a prodnose!

Verb

prodnose (third-person singular simple present prodnoses, present participle prodnosing, simple past and past participle prodnosed)

1. (slang) To meddle; to interfere where one is unwelcome.
   • 1956, Wolf Mankowitz, My Old Man's a Dustman, page 106:

     It's up to you, ladies and gents of the jury, to judge in all fairness whether what follows is in itself culpable, or whether rather the fact that it leads up to the Old Cock getting the push is just another example of the stinking hypocrisy of the official mind which while getting up to I wouldn't like to say what under their whited sheets in their safe suburban nights, puts on a celluloid collar in the morning and with a tight greasy mind goes prodnosing around with a black note-book and a stub of pencil picking up evidence of immorality and inefficiency on the part of war veterans and other true men of the world.

   • 1996, New Statesman - Volume 125, Issues 4304-4315, page 42:

     Above all, it was the most convincing portrait of the social worker's own thin line, between prodnosing ordinarily sad lives, and not leaping in when there might be small lives to be saved.

   • 2012, John Creasey, The Toff And The Deadly Priest, →ISBN, page 168:

     “Moral – don't confuse timidity with humility,” advised Rollison, sitting back in his favourite chair. “The truth was that you prodnosed to such good effect that you had them badly worried.