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I have seen this question, and it is not exactly what I'm asking. Sometimes people (most especially in developing countries) raise the tip of their lips to cover their nose when a foul odour is sensed or to jeer a person. In my own language this is called 'isu imi' (To jam the nose), I'm writing a short story and I'm trying to find the best way to describe the phenomena.

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Sounds like you would need prehensile lips for that – Robusto Dec 4 '12 at 2:20
Strangle related: english.stackexchange.com/q/66654/2085 – tchrist Dec 4 '12 at 13:41
gross, obviously! – Brad Mar 11 at 21:11
up vote 13 down vote accepted

It's called "curling one's lip". That phrase does not usually imply actually blocking one's nostrils, but sometimes it does:


He curled his lip against the smell as he sloshed through the puddled urine across the pissoir's shaft base; […] [link]

Even — especially — when it doesn't involve actually blocking your nostrils, it's still an expression of anger, scorn, disgust, or similar.

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Swimmers call this the human nose clip.

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If you can contort your face enough to do that, you won't have to wear one of these to keep water out of your nose:

enter image description here

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Nice pictures. +1 – coleopterist Dec 4 '12 at 2:57
i thought lip-curling was more of an Elvis-mouth type thing... – Brad Mar 11 at 21:12

Most people simply wrinkle their nose when they smell something foul.

An expression of disgust may involve everting the lips as you describe, but a person with such an expression is still wrinkling their nose.

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