nasal

adjective

1. 1

   Of or pertaining to the nose or to the nasion.

   Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.

   Neffy uses the same spray device as Narcan, the naloxone nasal spray for opioid overdose, according to a spokesperson for its maker, ARS Pharmaceuticals.

2. 2

   Having a sound imparted by means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng.

   nasal vowel

3. 3

   Characterized by resonance in the nasal passage.

   nasal utterance

   "Are you sure you're OK?" she said with a nasal Australian accent.

4. 4

   Sharp, penetrating.

noun

1. 1

   archaicA medicine that operates through the nose; an errhine.

2. 2

   historicalThe part of a helmet projecting to protect the nose; a nose guard.

   The nasal continued in use until about 1140, when it was generally discarded, but isolated examples may be found in every succeeding century down to the seventeenth.

   Rorge had donned a black halfhelm with a broad iron nasal that made it hard to see that he did not have a nose.

3. 3

   A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.

4. 4

   Variant of nasal consonantEllipsis of nasal consonant.

5. 5

   Variant of nasal vowelEllipsis of nasal vowel.

6. 6

   Variant of nasal boneEllipsis of nasal bone.

Forms

plural

nasals

comparative

more nasal

superlative

most nasal