A vivid piece of slang for the reddened, often enlarged nose associated with heavy, chronic alcohol consumption — the kind that develops over years of drinking and becomes an involuntary advertisement for someone's habits. The 'copper' refers to the reddish-brown metallic color the nose takes on due to broken capillaries and rosacea exacerbated by alcohol. It's used in both clinical and informal descriptions, and carries a grim humor that doesn't quite disguise the underlying sadness.
The landlord had the copper nose of a man who'd been sampling his own stock for about thirty years too long.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(slang) A red nose resulting from alcoholism.
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