Thumbing one's nose

{{Short description|Gesture of insult and defiance}}

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File:Till Eulenspiegel, Bernburg.jpg thumbing his nose at someone]]

File:Stalin nose.JPG performing the gesture in the 1940s]]

Thumbing one's nose, also known as cocking a snook,{{cite book |author= Cambridge University Press |title= Cambridge Idioms Dictionary |year= 2006 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |edition= 2nd |isbn= 0-521-86037-7}} is a sign of derision, disrespect, contempt, or defiance, made by putting the thumb on the nose, holding the palm open and perpendicular to the face, and wiggling the remaining fingers.{{Cite book|last=McNeill|first=David|year=1992|title=Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal About Thought|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cock-a-snook.html 'Cock a snook' – the meaning and origin of this phrase], Phrases.org.uk. Retrieved at 1 January 2018 It is used mostly by schoolchildren. It is also known as thumbing the nose, Anne's Fan or Queen Anne's Fan.{{cite book |title=The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots |last=Shipley |first=Joseph Twadell |edition=reprint |year=2001 |publisher=JHU Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=0-8018-6784-3 |page=302 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=m1UKpE4YEkEC |access-date=8 August 2009}}({{Failed verification|date=October 2021}} - no explicit connection to one specific Queen Anne in this source.)"The British also call it "Queen Anne's fan" because it became popular during her reign, of 1702-1714." Cocking a snook at a bender, Chris Lloyd for The Northern Echo, Darlington, [https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/columnists/16693577.cocking-snook-bender/ 6 Sep 2018], accessed 11 Oct 2021.

The phrase "cocking a snook" can be used figuratively: the Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1938 usage "The Rome–Berlin axis...cocked the biggest snook yet at the League of Nations idea" by Eric Ambler in his Cause for Alarm.{{cite book|title=Oxford English Dictionary |entry-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/183398?redirectedFrom=cock+a+snook#eid21847963|access-date=1 January 2018 |entry=Snook, n.3 |entry-url-access=subscription}}