nozzle

American  

[noz-uhl] / ˈnɒz əl /

noun

1. a projecting spout, terminal discharging pipe, or the like, as of a hose or bellows.

2. Slang. the nose.

3. the spout of a teapot.

4. the socket of a candlestick.

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nozzle British  

/ ˈnɒzəl /

noun

1. a projecting pipe or spout from which fluid is discharged

2. Also called: propelling nozzle.  a pipe or duct, esp in a jet engine or rocket, that directs the effluent and accelerates or diffuses the flow to generate thrust

3. a socket, such as the part of a candlestick that holds the candle

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Etymology

Origin of nozzle

1600–10; earlier nosle; see nose, -le

Explanation

A nozzle is the spout at the end of a hose that water flows through. Any kind of fluid — oil, gasoline — can move through a tube and squirt out of a nozzle, but we usually think of water in a hose, with the nozzle controlling the spray. The root of nozzle is nose, which — if you use a little imagination — describes the shape of most nozzles.

Example Sentences

"It can look down and spray a nozzle when the sensors pick a weed, while we're going around 15 miles an hour," Leguee says.

From BBC • Jan. 19, 2026

Children suck up lamb and rice through a nozzle, like little astronauts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 10, 2025

It took me three hours to force the hose onto the pump nozzle, but I couldn’t cinch it up securely.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2025

HITS-Bio uses a digitally controlled nozzle array, an arrangement of multiple nozzles that moves in three dimensions and allows researchers to manipulate several spheroids at the same time.

From Science Daily • Dec. 3, 2024

She held a metal watering can in her hand, tilting it to let the water out through the nozzle.

From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Related Words

• faucet
• spigot