[Ads-l] "on the nose"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 8:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> More on "Unbroken":
>
>  "Edifying, beautifully-made, but a bit monotonous and on the nose."
>
> http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/movie_reviews/2014/12/angelina_jolie_s_aim_is_true_in_unbroken
>
> Unsubtle? Obvious? Not in the D's (viz., OED, UrbanD).

This sense of "on the nose" appears fairly frequently in reviews and
recaps online. This UD entry covers it:

---
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20nose&defid=5833388
on the nose
Unsubtle or overly and clumsily direct. Used when characters in a
narrative leave no room for subtext with their eye-rollingly obvious
dialogue. Not a general term for bad writing.
"Excuse me, but I don't quite think we should have Helga say 'I am
sad. I hate you and you smell.' It's a bit on the nose."
---

As does Wiktionary:

---
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_the_nose
3. (idiomatic) Unimaginative; over-literal; lacking nuance. "Wearing
that floral dress to a garden party was a little on the nose, wouldn't
you say?"
---

...with a couple of citations from online reviews:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:on_the_nose

--bgz

-- 
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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