keep (one's) nose clean
(redirected from keeps someone's nose clean)keep (one's) nose clean
To behave properly; to stay out of trouble. You better keep your nose clean, kid, or you're going to run into trouble you can't handle.
keep one's nose clean
Fig. to keep out of trouble, especially trouble with the law. I'm trying to keep my nose clean by staying away from those rough guys. John, if you don't learn how to keep your nose clean, you're going to end up in jail.
keep one's nose clean
Stay out of trouble. For example, Dad told Brian to keep his nose clean from now on or he'd cut off his allowance. [Colloquial; late 1800s]
keep your nose clean
INFORMALIf you keep your nose clean, you behave well and avoid trouble. He'd worked hard and kept his nose clean for all those years. He told me to keep my nose clean and my mouth shut.
keep your nose clean
stay out of trouble. informalkeep your ˈnose clean
(informal) do nothing that will get you into trouble with the police or other authorities: After he came out of prison, he was determined to keep his nose clean.keep (one's) nose clean
Informal To stay out of trouble.
keep your nose clean
Stay out of trouble. This slangy phrase began to be heard in Britain in the late nineteenth century and crossed the Atlantic soon afterward. Why cleanliness should be invoked is not known. Presumably keeping one’s nose clean would be equivalent to not dirtying it by poking it into someone else’s business (see poke one’s nose into). Anyhow, the term was very common by the 1940s, when it appeared in such popular novels as Manning Long’s False Alarm (1943): “Keep your nose clean and you’ll keep out of trouble.”