banana nose

English

Comedian Jimmy Durante used the tagline "That's no banana; that's my nose!"

Alternative forms

• banana-nose

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

banana nose (plural banana noses)

1. (idiomatic) A large, unusually long nose.
   • 2003, Lawrence Gordon Knudsen, The Clock Struck Terror: A Professor Bates Novel, →ISBN, page 113:

     The man with the banana nose was on my right.

   • 2004 September 14, Valerie Strauss, “Can Exam Anxiety Be Overcome? With Effort”, in Washington Post, retrieved 10 February 2018:

     Shortly before giving an exam, Throckmorton puts on a pair of Elmo slippers, a banana nose and a funny hat.

   • 2005 July 22, Manohla Dargis, “Film Review: The Kids Are All Right; the Coach Has Problems”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 February 2018:

     With his banana nose, hunched shoulders and hustling ways, Matthau's Buttermaker had an unmistakably Nixonian cast.

2. (idiomatic, sometimes capitalized, mildly offensive) A person having such a nose.
   • 1985 June 30, Robert N. Strauss, “Letters: Ugly Fans at Track”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 February 2018:

     But 30 years ago, it was a pleasure to relax at the track—win or lose. The only remark I ever heard made to a jockey by a fan in those days was a friendly "Hey, banana nose" addressed to the great Eddie Arcaro.

   • 1995, Natalie Goldberg, Banana Rose: A Novel (2011 Open Road Media edition), →ISBN, ch. 2 (Google preview):

     Sometimes the kids at school call me Banana Split, and when my father heard the name, he said, "You mean Banana Nose. You always had a big nose."

   • 2003, Sam Millar, chapter 3, in On the Brinks, →ISBN:

     “How many, young Millar?” asked Flanders, a giant with tight clothes, lambchop sideburns, a ruddy complexion and an enormous nose that defied gravity. The kids called him Banana Nose.