Pay through the nose Informal

To pay a far higher price for something than it is reasonably worth.

It’s usually said with some resentment or regret, describing an unavoidable overpayment rather than a foolish purchase freely chosen.

The most widely repeated origin story claims that ninth-century Danish invaders in Ireland imposed a poll tax nicknamed the “nose tax,” slitting the noses of anyone who refused to pay. This makes for a vivid tale, and it appears in many popular etymology collections, but it should be treated with real skepticism: no contemporary ninth-century record documents this specific practice, and the English phrase itself is not attested in print until the seventeenth century, many centuries after the alleged Viking-era tax — an enormous gap for an idiom to supposedly commemorate a single historical event. Most careful etymologists consider the Danish nose-tax story an unverified legend rather than a documented source, and treat the true origin of “pay through the nose” as genuinely unknown, perhaps simply built on the nose as a sensitive, painful body part standing in for financial pain, much like other body-part idioms of overpayment across languages.

We paid through the nose for parking near the stadium on game day.

You’ll pay through the nose if you book a flight this last-minute.

They paid through the nose to get the apartment renovated before winter.

A: How much was the tow truck? B: Don’t ask — we paid through the nose.