Lead you by the nose

Posted by Henry on February 03, 2004

In Reply to: Lead you by the nose posted by Sax on February 03, 2004

: Can you please tell us what this means and where it comes from? Thanks much...

From Dictionary.com To lead by the nose, to lead at pleasure, or to cause to follow submissively; to lead blindly, as a person leads a beast. --Shak.

Bulls have a ring in their nose and are led on a rope or a pole. There is a traditional pub game, Ringing the Bull, where players swing a ring on a rope and try to catch it on a horn or, more commonly today, a hook. Pigs may also have a ring in their nose, as in The Owl and the Pussycat. In this case, its purpose is to deter them from rooting in the ground.