Pay through the nose means to pay much more than something is worth. People say it when a price is clearly too high: a hotel room during a festival, a last-minute ticket, coffee near the main square. The expression is informal; in an essay, pay far too much works instead.
When would you say pay through the nose?
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pay through the nose (for + noun); pay through the nose to + verb
- We paid through the nose for an emergency plumber on a Sunday night.
- If you buy train tickets on the day, you'll pay through the nose.
- Tourists often pay through the nose for coffee near the main square.
What changed
First versionWe paid through our nose for a tiny flat in the city centre.
RevisionWe paid through the nose for a tiny flat in the city centre.
Many body idioms use my or your: put your foot down, hold your tongue. By analogy, it is tempting to write through our nose. But this form is fixed: the nose, whoever is paying. In the correction, our was replaced with the.
Pay through the nose is about the person who paid too much. To say that the thing itself is very expensive, use cost an arm and a leg: The repairs cost an arm and a leg. Compare: we paid through the nose, but the ticket cost an arm and a leg.
Your turn
Hotels near the stadium doubled their prices for the final, so we ___ for a tiny room.
Show the answer
paid through the nose — Prices doubled, and a tiny room cost a fortune: paid through the nose. Picked up the tab means paid for everyone, for example for the whole group at a restaurant, but here the point is the inflated price, not who paid for whom.
Think of something you bought or a service you used that cost you far too much. Say what it was and why you had to pay so much.
I paid through the nose for a taxi from the airport because the last train had already left.
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