Monday, September 20, 2004

Today's OED antedating: "to rub one's nose in it"

To rub one’s nose in it, to remind one of embarrassment or error, often with intent to humiliate, ex aversion therapy for incontinent canines ("nose," n., sec 9 (e), first use cited 1963): Essay titled "‘Im Westen, Nichts Neues,’" by Alexander Woollcott, New Yorker, July 27, 1929, p 32, col 1: "I refer, of course, to 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' the German tale which closes a mighty hand on the neck of the squirming human race and instructively, punitively, rubs its nose in the war."