What does the expression «left with one’s nose» mean?
You can only sympathize with the one who “остался с носом” (“ostalsya c nosom”) or was “left with their nose” - it means that they failed in something or were deceived.
According to one version, a ‘nose’ was the name given to the groom's offering to the bride's parents. That is, ‘nose’ is literally a noun from ‘to carry’". If they did not accept it and refused, then he was left without a wife and with nothing. According to another version, it was called... "a bribe for luck" or, more simply, a bribe. If it was not possible to bribe someone, then the unlucky corrupt official was left with “his nose” ie. nothing.
Over time, the expression acquired a broader meaning - it began to be said when someone was deceived or had a bad luck. In one of Vitaly Bianki's stories, a squirrel escapes from a fox: "And just as the squirrel ran up to the birch tree, before he could even bite the mushroom, suddenly out of nowhere from the grass - a fox appeared from the side! And at him. We gasped. But, the squirrel noticed the danger in time, turned around and, in two leaps, found himself on the birch. He instantly flew up the trunk and hid under the very top, where he curled up into a ball of fear. And the fox was ‘left with its nose’ ie. nothing." An English equivalent idiom would be: “The one left holding the bag.”
