Plug/cover your nose/ears.

[Ashraful Haque]

1. "You can plug your nose if something smells really bad." - Is this when you hold your nose with two fingers? Can we also say cover your nose?
2. "You can plug your ears if you're somewhere where it's really loud." - Is this when you stick your fingers in your ears? Do we say cover your ears when we put our palms over our ears?
3. As far as I understand, plug is only used when talking about doing something with our fingers. Is it anyway possible to use plug when it comes to our mouth?

 

[emsr2d2]

I would use "plug" only for a situation in which you actually insert something (fingers in your examples) in order to block out a sound/smell. However, in BrE, we're unlikely to use "plug" in either situation.

If you don't like the noise, just stick your fingers in your ears/cover your ears! ("Cover your ears" would involve putting the palms of your hands flat against your ears.)
If you don't like the smell, hold your nose/cover your nose. ("Hold your nose" is automatically understood to mean "Put your thumb against one nostril, put your first finger (of the same hand) against the other nostril and then squeeze the thumb and finger together to seal the nostrils shut".)

 

[Ashraful Haque]

I would use "plug" only for a situation in which you actually insert something (fingers in your examples) in order to block out a sound/smell. However, in BrE, we're unlikely to use "plug" in either situation.

If you don't like the noise, just stick your fingers in your ears/cover your ears! ("Cover your ears" would involve putting the palms of your hands flat against your ears.)
If you don't like the smell, hold your nose/cover your nose. ("Hold your nose" is automatically understood to mean "Put your thumb against one nostril, put your first finger (of the same hand) against the other nostril and then squeeze the thumb and finger together to seal the nostrils shut".)

Thanks. I've never heard anyone use 'plug' either. I got them from a youtube channel that teaches English. I wonder why they choose to teach us non-native speakers such rarely used words.

 

[Tarheel]

Thanks. I've never heard anyone use 'plug' either. I got them from a youtube channel that teaches English. I wonder why they choose to teach us non-native speakers such rarely used words.

I frequently see ESL learners use words that are rarely used by native speakers. I always tell myself they must have been taught that. Or something.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks. I've never heard anyone use 'plug' either. I got them it from a YouTube channel that teaches English. I wonder why they choose to teach us non-native speakers such rarely used words.

We need more information than "a YouTube channel" for the source. Please provide a link or at least the name of the channel. Are the teachers on that channel all native speakers?

 

[jutfrank]

There's nothing remotely unnatural or rarely used about the word 'plug', used either as verb or noun.

Below is a picture of ear plugs. What they do is plug your ears. The main sense of 'plug' is that something is placed in a hole. Yes, you could plug your ears with your fingers and yes you could also plug your nose with your fingers but would you really do that? No.

 

[teechar]

There's also "pinch your nose/nostrils (shut)".

 

[Ashraful Haque]

We need more information than "a YouTube channel" for the source. Please provide a link or at least the name of the channel. Are the teachers on that channel all native speakers?

Here's the channel. Please check out the 'ears' part. It starts at 3:45.