"The nose features abundantly among the many idioms we use that are based on parts of the body. We nose around in other people's business or keep our nose clean, we follow our nose or pay through the nose, we put somebody's nose out of joint or cut off our own nose to spite our face, we stick our nose in the air or keep it to the grindstone. But most parts of the body, both external and internal, get their turn. We have a nose for trouble, but a head for business and an eye for detail. We could, for instance, rework Shakespeare's 'seven ages of man' speech from As You Like It entirely in terms of body idioms associated with those ages. The infant has skin as smooth as a baby's bottom. In childhood, we cut our teeth and dip our toe in the water. The young man may fall head over heels in love and wear his heart on his sleeve. The soldier goes armed to the teeth and, if he has the stomach for it, fights tooth and nail. The justice may be evenhanded or he may put his thumb on the scales. Then, in retirement, we take the weight off our feet until, growing long in the tooth, we are on our last legs. Alternatively, we could proceed from head to toe to characterize the ideal man or woman we met earlier, who might have a stiff upper lip, take it on the chin, speak straight from the shoulder, and always get off on the right foot. His or her less fortunate counterpart might be a misery guts who's all fingers and thumbs and has two left feet"